Final Fantasy Suscitatio XIII
by GenesisArclite
Summary: One beat of the butterfly's wings may summon a storm. One seemingly insignificant choice can change everything. As Lightning attempts to accomplish the task set forth by Bhunivelze, she allows a dark warrior to accompany her, but as she journeys through the last days, the new path may be more trouble than she bargained for. Initially follows canon, soon splits into AU.
1. Prelude

_**Prelude**_

It has been five hundred years since the world fell apart. The six l'Cie, in search of true freedom, have found their journey forcefully terminated. Time has stopped for the inhabitants of this strange world. A mysterious entity known as "chaos" now rules. Entire landmasses have eroded away and been swallowed by the thunderous sea surrounding what is left of the land. The sea has devoured the rest of the world, leading only a small corner, inhabited by a few thousand lone survivors. The whole of existence is perched on the brink of a final oblivion.

During the final thirteen days, something changes.

In the mysterious darkness of the chaos, the suffering that has gone on for centuries has cast a long shadow over all of this planet's existence. The fires of time are still, but not quenched. The whispers of the mysterious "liberator", an entity summoned by the overseer of this new world, have become murmurings as her awakening arrives. There is hope again for the people. Life twists and turns again, but no longer in a circle, as instead it begins to march forward toward the hope of a new world.

But the only hope for _this_ world is complete oblivion. And anyone this "liberator" does not save will be lost along with it, or so it is said.

The Liberator is a young woman, but she does not _look_ young anymore. Her eyes are serious. The lines of her face are hard. When she awoke, her first glimpse of the new reality was the brightest light casting its long shadow, saying that if she does its bidding, her bonds and those of the world's will break. She will get her sister back, she was told, and it is that tentative promise that spurs her into acting upon the wishes of Bhunivelze, the self-proclaimed god of this world, in the hopes of reuniting with her beloved sister.

No matter the cost, she is Lightning, and she will achieve freedom for all.

That will be more difficult than she knows. There are bursts of chaos in the night that the people have feared for centuries, for they bring powerful beasts resembling living shadows that devour those hapless enough to cross their path. No one has been able to vanquish even one of them. The world oozes pandemonium; paranoia creeps through the night as though all are being watched by angels of death.

It is into this maw of shadow the Liberator marches.

The six heroes of old, whose lives have become bedtime stories, whose sacrifices have become legend, whose flaws have been vindicated, are scattered.

And in the fountainhead of the chaos, something has begun to stir.

* * *

><p>The Ark is a world displaced from the timestream of the land below, and Lightning is grateful for that – as grateful as she can be without being able to summon any real depth of emotion. For someone who has always felt strongly, the strange sensation of combined nonchalance, flat determination, and apathy would frighten her had she had the ability to feel such a thing, but she has been purged of the unneeded pettiness of emotion.<p>

What remains is steel resolve, and knowing this place will protect her from the dying world under her feet helps her resolve more than this boy could ever know.

This boy, who had once been a man.

Lightning still felt echoes of feelings, but she knew, too, that the price of becoming so powerful had been giving up her emotions. She suspected it was to make her a better tool. That was fine. If being a tool was what it took to save the lives of those perched on the brink of the apocalypse, fine. She could deal with that. If losing her emotions was what it took to make her most effective, then that was the way it had to be. She'd deal, like she always did.

If losing most of what defined her as "human" meant Serah would return, so be it.

The echo she felt upon finding Hope Estheim in the same form she'd first encountered him so long ago could best be described as "confusion". She knew he had grown up in the timeline leading to this, but when she'd asked about it, he had shrugged and told her he couldn't remember how he'd gotten here. Demonstrating the same strength he had shown in her glimpses of time when he had been a man, though, quickly washed away all her doubts.

His job was to assist her in her task from this place, operating a terminal situated in the center of a vast chamber with a vaulted ceiling. In fact, when she looked up, she got a little dizzy, because she wasn't sure that actually _was_ the ceiling.

He worked feverishly at this terminal, constantly scanning a holographic map of the area and dropping pins on points of interest for her to investigate. "But not too many," he said at one point, "because you really _should_ focus on the task at hand, not all the interesting things to look at."

"Try to keep me busy, though," had been her response.

He, too, had been stripped of his emotional core, but still managed to work up a little smile as he complied, finding more points of interest on the map, which were then transmitted to her handset's map. Finally, after quite a bit of work at the terminal, he stepped back, a flicker of pride crossing his features.

"There. What do you think?"

She examined the map. "Very colorful."

The map showed the four continents splayed out in splashes of gray on black. Dots colored green, blue, and red glowed steadily in certain areas. Some of them were clustered, while others were strung out seemingly at random. At certain points, question marks hovered beside the dots, but for the moment, she didn't ask about them.

"I've managed to locate a few more people so far."

"And who would they be?"

Hope made a thoughtful sound. "Snow is still in Yusnaan."

Her eyes fell to the blue dot on the lower-left continent. Her old comrade's name hovered beside it. "Snow Villiers, the 'great hero' of the l'Cie," she murmured. The man had found himself in what Hope called the "city of revelry" – a place of eternal celebration as the inhabitants awaited the world's end. There, her new master had just enough influence that they considered the apocalypse a blessing, as in Luxerion. Unlike the latter, though, they refused to be very solemn about the event. "Has he left his palace at all?"

"From what I've heard, he hasn't left in centuries."

She wondered just how heavily the burdens of chaos weighed on his heart. Were they as fierce as she had heard they could become? Over time, she had been told, the burdens had accumulated in people's hearts, the years adding layer upon layer until their true selves were buried. The long life that came with time being broken meant that a person's normal accumulation of burdens had increased exponentially.

If she had to help Snow, then he had not escaped the chaos. The eternally-optimistic man was now one of those she was required – no, _compelled by duty_ – to save.

How heavy _had_ his heart become?

"I'll go after him again when the time is right," she said. "Any others?"

Hope ran the back of his hand across his chin. "Well, I _may_ have found Sazh, but I'm not sure. There's also a strong presence of chaos in the temple ruins. From the energy waves bleeding off into the surrounding area, it appears to be the place where the chaos is flowing from."

Lightning gazed at the dot indicating the location of the temple – the ruins of an ancient metropolis the Angel of Valhalla had been predestined to lead her to. A great destiny waited there, and the memory of the whispering voice following her throughout the vast untamed wilderness still lingered. Someone wanted her to go there, into the thick of the chaos, fulfilling some wish of the voice's heart, and she could not ignore it. It had led her to the chocobo, led her to care for it, led her through confrontations and wilderness and darkness, ever closer to–

"The voice in the wilderness," she murmured. Her eyes, of their own accord, fixed on the dot of color. "It… told me to go… _there_. As soon as I could."

Hope hummed softly. "Into the font of the chaos. It could be very dangerous. You'll need to be careful, but I know you will be. Who knows, you may even be able to confront the erosion of the world and slow it. Perhaps, by some miracle, you can even stop it altogether, even if you cannot do it permanently."

Lightning lifted an eyebrow. "_Delay_ the end of the world?" She considered the possibility of achieving such a miracle. How many more people she could rescue from the chaos, if only she could stall its growth long enough to do so… "It's worth a try. Only a day has gone by so far. It won't be a waste of time.

"Good. I'll send you back to your chocobo once you're ready."

The woman gazed at the display, one hand resting on her thigh. "I'll have to search every corner of the world," she murmured. "Will I have enough time to save everyone?"

"It is not possible, Light."

She looked carefully at him, tilting her head slightly. "Isn't it?"

Hope shook his head, but didn't seem all that concerned. "You only have so much time, and there are many people left in the world. You can't save them all, despite the power Bhunivelze has given you." He gazed at her with soft eyes, reassuring her. "For each moment you spend on a more difficult task for a particularly dark heart, you may lose ten people with far lighter burdens. You must choose carefully." For a moment, something flashed through his eyes, but didn't last long enough for her to determine what it was. "The darkest hearts may have to be turned away for the sake of those who still have light within. I trust your judgment."

She nodded. This man – boy, as he had become once again – was always ready to believe in her. Sure, he worried about her, and watched her every move, but there was no one she would rather have watching her back, and if given the choice to walk alone or with him as her sole companion, well, she didn't have to wonder. "Add the ruins to my list of places to visit tomorrow," she murmured. "I have been told to go, and so, I shall go."

"What do you think is out there?"

She shifted her weight, staring at the dot. The ruins happened to be of the temple of Etro, which had once resided in Valhalla, the land where she had lost so much of her life to endless war. That land had been full of chaos, and that temple had been the seat of the overseer of chaos. No doubt it was strongly connected to the mysterious entity as a result. The only other entity she could think of so strongly connected to the chaos was the warrior, Caius Ballad, who had perished at the hand of Noel Kreiss on the temple's shores long ago.

"There are many guesses in my mind," she admitted, "but I will speak none of them until I have seen what's there."

"What if… what if there's something terrible out there?"

Lightning looked at him. "Such as?"

"Well, the chaos behaves like it's–" He shifted his weight. "–_alive_."

"Guess I'd better take care of it then." Now she flashed a quick smirk, but again, it felt hollow. Somewhere deep inside, some forgotten part of her clawed at her mind, but it was almost as though the part of her brain responsible for emotion had been removed. Only cold and simple logic remained, along with faint echoes of emotion, enough to get her riled, but not much else. That was fine. She did her best work when everything could be laid out logically. "I'll investigate. Meanwhile, try to find any others we might have known. I want to save as many as I can." She hesitated. "I can't save those who don't wish to be. Right?"

Hope nodded. "That would be correct. Bhunivelze put those restrictions on your power for a reason, I'm sure. It may be best not to question it."

"Or he just wants me to do what he wants so I get what I want." She sighed. "It's my fate."

Hope's green eyes narrowed slightly. "You don't need to be a slave to 'fate', Light," he said. "We got here _fighting_ a fate laid out by false gods, after all. We're going to pave our own path in the new world. When that day comes – and it _will_ – you'll see what I mean." One hand became a fist, which he raised to his chest. "We'll build our own future, Light. Don't get tangled up in the idea of 'fate', now, because it'll be over soon."

Lightning swallowed back the words she had nearly spoken – words intended to set him straight, but now, hearing him speak like the leader he had been in Academia, she didn't feel like it anymore. Little though he had become, his will, his determination, it seemed, had not dimmed in equal measure.

"You'll continue to return here at midnight." Hope turned back to his station, all business again. "I'm not giving you a choice, Light, and I can't. You'll need your rest. You're not superhuman."

"Oh, aren't I, Mister Estheim?"

He didn't look at her when he said, "It's Hope." Pause. "You have super_powers_, but I still would _never_ say you're superhuman. You're our last hope. You _have_ to succeed." He looked over his shoulder at her. "You can't falter, and you can't give up. And you _can't_ die. If you do _any_ of those things, it's over."

"Don't worry. I won't forget."

"Then…" His eyes softened again. "Please. Be careful, Light."

Lightning hesitated and looked carefully at him. "I will." Her eyes drifted to a slender tree sitting a short distance from the terminal. It had a few tendrils growing from it alongside a few leaves, but it looked thin and weak. "That tree needs to grow strong so that it can birth the new world."

The boy tilted his head. "It will be good to see."

Her expression didn't change when she said, "After all of this, it really will be."

The second of the last thirteen days began when she walked away from the terminal and the boy, allowing Hope to send her to the land below. It was simple: save the people of the old world, and go on to a new one. It was important, but still very simple. If someone could not or did not want to be saved, she would move on. Clean and simple.

But she understood the full depth of what she had been asked to do.

Her dear sister's fate hung in the balance: if she did her task well, her reward was Serah's life, able to go on and live in the new world. It was best, then, that she went through these next twelve days without her emotions. They would impede her, and turn her from the woman she had become into a doubting child, something she just couldn't afford to be. Too much had been lost. No, from here on out, she had to be the soldier with a heart of steel. She _had_ to keep her head up, eyes forward, shoulders back, never doubting.

When the new world came, everything would finally be alright, and the dreams and wishes of those who had been present for Cocoon's first fall would finally come true. There would be peace. This world would be gone, but it was a small price to pay to see all the pain and suffering come to an end.

Snow and Serah would be reunited. Since she had so foolishly refused to give her blessing when the time had been best, blinded by her lack of knowledge about a passionate but adoring man, this would be her next atonement – by saving the world, and uniting the two lovers again.

She stepped into the teleporter, and the Ark dissolved into starlit nighttime around her.

* * *

><p>Lightning is a soldier, tasked with defeating the darkness with the power of the light. There are no doubts in her mind, no inkling that anything would ever sway her from her path. No matter what she encounters, she will never move from where she stands, never let her sights move from where they sat now, never sway from her ultimate goal of reuniting with her beloved sister, whom she had sent to her death, as she has already accepted.<p>

Nothing will stop her, and no one can change her mind.

In the fountainhead of chaos, something is stirring, while above it a figure cloaked in darkness and lost in thought awaits the day when he no longer has to gaze at the world he brought into being. Maybe then, he can finally pretend to have some peace. He can never die, of course. No, _his_ fate will be worse than death, but he has accepted it. The Liberator will come for him, will try to help him – this, he knows, beyond all doubt – but he also knows that she has failed long before she has even begun.

All around, shadowy echoes cry for and plead with him.

In the midst of it, all he can do is what he has done for five long centuries: wait, patiently, for the day when it finally ends. Now, he adds another task to that one: how to explain to the woman that she can't save him, shouldn't try, and that he cannot be unbound from the world's fate by any mere mortal hand, not even hers.

It stings, it hurts, it makes him angry, but he has accepted it.

But she will still come for him, and the hands of destiny have begun to tick forward once more.

* * *

><p><em>And so begins the multichapter LR story I have been planning since the game was announced back in 2013. Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoy the ride!<em>


	2. Seeds

_**1 Seeds**_

Tucked in a narrow valley filled with lush greenery, thick with the scent of minerals and dirt, Lightning found what she had been looking for.

An airship had nosedived here long ago, now overgrown and rusted from time. The morning sun made what bare metal was left shimmer like diamonds. Lightning slid off her mount, letting the bird fluff his feathers and pick at the grass, and hesitated, basking in the warmth of the sunlight all around her for a moment. Birds sang in the trees and butterflies flitted between flowers as flashes of color all around her. It was as though the impending end of the world did not exist at all, and all that mattered were the flowers, the trees, and the butterflies.

"Wait here," she murmured. "And be patient, okay?"

The bird trilled softly in response, but his look of displeasure burned like a brand, making her extend a hand to pat his beak very gently. Again, he trilled, but a little quieter this time, sounding slightly less worried. Turning away, she headed for what seemed to be the entrance to this mysterious structure. Half of her wondered if Hope had even been _close_ to right, saying that a signal seemed to be coming from somewhere inside this ancient place.

After only a few steps, she stopped and looked behind her.

There was no reason the Shadow Hunter would have followed her clear out here, though, dozens of miles from his new abode in Luxerion. Besides, she had only run into him once so far, after which meeting he had merely said he would wait for her to return, as it was "not the right time". There was no reason for him to follow her. Still, he had given her a good – if brief – match, during which he had demonstrated surprising ferocity that had made her nervous. He had always been a hunter, but she had never seen him look so _eager_ to kill…

_You will die, Lightning, by my hand, or none at all_.

Though she didn't feel the emotion that usually accompanied such a gesture, she did feel the hairs on her arms stand up. Tonight, she would need to return to Luxerion and see what the Children of Etro were up to – stop yet another young woman from being scarified, another soul from being lost, and once more protect the innocent from suffering because of the mistakes _she_ had once made. She would probably run into him again.

Sensing a flicker of chaos, she glanced around again.

And, again, saw nothing at all.

The white chocobo ripped up a chunk of grass, roots and all, and choked it down while warbling softly. Figuring everything was _probably_ alright, she continued on.

Cut into the side of the airship, overgrown with various plants, but with a path slashed through the vegetation, was a door. Trying the handle, she felt it give enough to swing it open and step inside. The metal blocked the sunlight and accompanying heat; her eyes had to adjust to the cool, shadowy interior that greeted her. It smelled like leather, old cloth, and soil – not unpleasant smells, by any mean. It was also very quiet inside, so she kept a hand at the ready as she moved deeper into the structure along a central corridor.

From somewhere deep inside, a breeze whisked past her neck, fluttering her collar, stirring her hair, bringing the scent of wet soil to her nostrils. From the ceiling dangled vines thick with flowers and tufts of green moss, swaying gently in that sweet-scented breeze.

"I'm detecting a couple of heat signatures," Hope murmured. "Human-sized, I think. Though, one's pretty small."

Not wanting to break the silence, she only exhaled into the mike.

He seemed to understand. "Be careful, Light."

A quiet splash reached her; she looked down to find one boot planted in a puddle a couple of centimeters deep and now swirling with dirt she'd upset in the process. She took a quick breath, lifting her boot carefully out of the water and placing it on drier ground – what remained of the metal hull that had not yet rusted away. Once she was firmly on that solid ground, she continued forward, picking her way carefully, avoiding spots where it looked as though the hull was nothing but wet rust and moss, where one wrong step could send her into whatever lay beneath.

After a time, she came upon a door, shut tight.

Lightning glanced over her shoulder at a long hallway sprinkled with shafts of light and with moss dangling from the ceiling like soggy green fingers. Nothing moved, and there was no sound. She took a breath, nose wrinkling reflexively at the scent of moldy soil, and tried the handle of the door, hooking her fingers tight into it and pulling with all her strength. It didn't budge; she tried again, and it groaned, but didn't give.

She released her discomfort as a quick exhale and examined the door more carefully. There were no hinges, and the rubber seal around it had rotted away long ago. Streaks of greenish rust painted the front.

It hadn't been opened in a very long time.

She moved on, following the hallway to the right across muddy spits of land and rusty puddles. The smell of ancient engine oil greeted her for a moment; she twisted slightly to see a door slightly adjacent, leading to what looked to be an old engine room. She paused and peered inside, but the engine had long ago seized up, dry but for the rusty water running over everything; she continued on, choking back a gag at the stench rising from the soil. A little further on, she found another door, and this one didn't seem to be in as bad a shape as the previous one.

Trying the handle, she tugged the door open.

"Not another step, you."

Lightning froze and slowly turned her head toward the familiar voice. A shaft of sunlight blocked her view; she squinted, but couldn't cut through the contrast enough to see to the other side. "Sazh?" she called, and started to take a step forward, hoping to go around the shaft of sunlight.

"One more step, and there's gonna be a neat hole drilled somewhere in your body."

She reversed her step. "Sazh Katzroy, it's me. It's Lightning."

"It's something that looks like Lightning, same as what whisked Hope to the Ark a long time ago." She still saw nothing, but at least could determine that the voice was coming from the far side of the sunbeam. He had managed to sneak up on her. Had her powers given her that much arrogance? She certainly wasn't invulnerable, and a well-placed bullet could still cause her plenty of discomfort. "I say whether you're her or not."

She frowned slightly. "I'm not an imposter."

"Easy for you to say."

Briefly, her fingers itched for her sword, but she resisted. "If I was here to kill you, wouldn't I just do it?" she said with a sigh. Maybe stating the obvious would help.

"Sure, but if you're here to trick me, this'd be a real fine way to do it, don't you think?"

Reasoning with him wouldn't work. "Sazh, either trust it's me, or you can stay here and keep suffering from the chaos burden in your heart. I know it's there. I can–" Reaching out with her senses, she probed the ever-present stink of chaos around her and found a particularly bright flare coming from Sazh's direction. "I can feel it. Something's troubling you, and unless you let me help you, you'll be destroyed with the world when it ends."

There was a long moment of silence before he punctuated it with a sigh. "Can't say that wouldn't be best."

Lightning felt her brow knit and her emotionless heart ache. "Sazh, please come out."

There was a crunch of gravel and the soupy sound of something pulling itself free from the mud, and then a splash as the owner of the voice stepped around the sunbeam into view. It was Sazh, definitely, dressed in a worn leather coat pulled over a faded green shirt and the cream-colored lower half of a pilot's suit, the rest of the suit tied around his waist with the suit's strings. As he moved further into view, he holstered a pistol on his thigh before stopping and peering at her along the wall. She gazed back, waiting to see what he would do.

"So, you came here to save me, huh?" he murmured.

She shifted her weight, glancing at the pistols in the holsters on Sazh's thighs. She knew how fast he could pull those out if he felt the need to. "Only if you wish to be," she murmured, shifting her weight. "I cannot save those who don't wish to be saved. Now, what is going on, Sazh? What troubles you?"

His eyebrows knitted. "You're really here to help, huh? The legendary Liberator, come to save the souls of those drenched in darkness, isn't it?"

Swallowing quietly, she said, "Let me help you, please."

There was a flicker of pain in his eyes. "Do you remember my little boy?"

Lightning felt her fingers flex. "Dajh. Yes."

"He's– come and see." He stepped past, motioning for her to follow, and opened the door she had been trying the rest of the way. As her eyes adjusted, she saw something interesting: a hole carved in the roof, beneath which sat a bed of red-hot coals. Around the coals was a small assortment of chairs, looking as if they had come from all different places. The rest of the room was sparsely furnished, with a man-sized bed in the far corner, and near it, propped against the wall–

Lightning moved toward that bed and its single tiny occupant, lying on his back, unmoving. "Dajh," she said, and reached out, gently brushing her fingers across his forehead. When she reached out with her senses, she felt nothing, not even a flicker of chaos – as if he were a void in the world.

"It's like he's in a coma. Been that way for centuries. Right after the chaos spilled into the world." Sazh moved up beside her, folding his arms. "I tried everything."

She withdrew her hand. "There's nothing there, Sazh. Nothing at all. Not a flicker of life."

"He's breathing," the man said stiffly.

Lightning's eyes roved over the boy's form. Sure enough, he _was_ breathing, but slowly and deeply. "As far as I can tell, there's nothing more than body here," she told him, keeping her voice low. "It's breathing, it's technically alive, but it's not doing anything else. Sazh…" She looked at him, seeing his expression darken. "…Dajh is not in there. It's not even that he's in a coma. He's not even _there_."

Sazh abruptly turned on his heel. "Don't you think I know that?"

"If you do," she said, "then–"

"Do you see this?" Sazh turned, and in one hand he held a small box with a glass heart on the front. It shone faintly in the morning sunlight. "Lumina gave it to me, said I can save Dajh if I can find where his soul ran off to and hold it in here long enough to bring him home." Gazing at the box, he missed Lightning's wince, missed the uncertainty that crept through her at the mention of the girl's name. "I've searched for centuries, and…" Bitterness seeped into his voice; he laid the box on a table and stared at it. "…found nothing."

"You said Lumina gave it to you?"

"Little pink-haired girl, kind of looks like Serah? Yeah." Now he looked back at her, his brow furrowing. "I know she's a mischief-maker, but I've got nothing else to go on."

"She could be lying to you, Sazh. Manipulating you."

"Maybe, but it's _all I have_."

She shook her head slightly, but decided not to push any further. "Perhaps I can search for him," she offered in as calm a tone as she could muster. "Maybe I'll have better luck finding him."

Sazh made no move to pick up the box. "Maybe."

Lightning gazed at him, then glanced at Dajh and sighed quietly. "I'm sorry, Sazh. I wish to help."

"You can't," the man said, but sounded more resigned and apathetic than in any way upset. "It's what it is. I can't keep a grip on my son. Seems like no matter what I do, I lose him." The man _should_ have sounded far more upset than he did, but he seemed instead as though every ounce of emotion regarding the situation had been sapped out of him. The five centuries had felt far too long for him.

Glancing back at the boy, she hesitated, then said, "I'll search for him." She eyed Sazh carefully. "Do you remember what happened when he fell asleep?"

"Plain as day," he told her, gazing at her, eyes plainly stating that the memory had been etched in deep. "There was a bright light just before the chaos came, and then it came for the two of us. Next thing I know, I'm still strapped in my seat, but Dajh is out like a light, and the airship's here." He spread his hands, dark eyes meeting hers.

"I see," she murmured. "Perhaps the chaos has him."

"Then _why_," Sazh demanded, "leave his body behind? What's the _point_?" His voice rose in pitch, but she heard the half-terror that underlined it.

Lightning fixed her eyes on his, making it clear that he _dare not_ look away. "The chaos is malevolent more often than it is benevolent. I was in Valhalla, surrounded by it, and it was always on Caius's side, not mine." She shook a few dark memories away before they could take too much hold.

"You saying it took Dajh away just to play with me?"

"I wouldn't ignore the possibility, Sazh, especially where Lumina is involved."

The man turned his back to her; Lightning saw an opening out onto what seemed to be part of the airship's deck, one he had turned into a makeshift patio. The bloom of sunlight made it difficult to see details.

"I've got things, uh, I need to do," he said, and went outside.

Lightning chewed her lip and glanced back at Dajh, wondering where Lumina, the chaos, and the end of the old world converged. Flicking her headset back on, she said, "Hope, I don't know what I can do to help Sazh. I can search for his son, but I'm not even sure where to begin looking. Or…" She sighed. "…even what I'm looking _for_. Got any bright ideas on how to proceed?"

"Lumina may know something," he said without hesitation. "When she turns up again, and she will, ask her."

Lightning snorted. "Besides that, Hope."

"Well…" There was a long moment of hesitation. "There's a lot of people in Luxerion, members of the Order, who have some experience with things like this. When you return to Luxerion tonight, my suggestion is to try going to them – maybe even the Grand Inquisitor – and ask about it. They'll have _unique_ insight, I'm sure."

Lightning felt her skin crawl slightly at the idea of facing the Order again. She would already have to face them to stop another senseless sacrifice this evening, near midnight; having to ask them where a small child could have been taken by the chaos was a prospect she didn't like.

"For now, why don't you just go speak to Sazh? Maybe he has more insight."

Lightning took another glance at the child before acknowledging him and switching off the vox function. When she stepped outside, her eyes hurt briefly as they adjusted to the light before she was able to take in her surroundings – huge tracts of land sweeping into the distance, mountains carpeted in prickly trees, a blue sky scattered with puffy white clouds, and in the distance, a gray-bellied cloud drenching a hillside in the thick gray mist of rain. Sazh stood at the railing, arms loosely crossed over it, and leaned over, staring blankly.

"I tried looking for him when it all first went down," he said as she moved up beside him. "Don't know how long I searched, but I did my best. Found no trace but his body."

Lightning said, "I'll find him, Sazh. I promise."

"Maybe," Sazh murmured. He still stared blankly into space. "If you find any leads, you know where I'll be."

She nodded and stepped away, giving him the space he obviously desired. Despite being out here for so long, all by himself, it seemed a visitor easily wore out their welcome. Keeping her thoughts to herself, she started back inside to leave the way she had come.

Then she paused, and said, "Sazh, you mentioned something that intrigues me."

"Yeah?" He shifted his weight. "What's that?"

"About an imposter who took Hope with her back to the Ark," she said. "I know little of what happened while I was asleep, but it seems that, at some point, Hope was here, on the ground, rather than in the sky." She felt her brow furrow tightly. "What imposter, Sazh? What happened?"

It was a long moment before he looked at her, leaning back on the railing. "Hope was haunted by someone who looked like you for a couple of years," he said, slowly, as if reluctant to speak – or, she thought, thinking very hard to pull out ancient memories. "I don't think he believed it was you, but he was so desperate to find you after losing Serah and everyone else to the chaos that he eventually followed her to the Ark and never returned." He sighed. "If you ever find him, you should ask about it."

"I did find him," she murmured. "He's been returned to his teenage body, and resides in the Ark."

Sazh blinked, mouth hanging slightly open. "You… he's there? He's _alive_?"

"He is indeed, Sazh, and more than that, he's been guiding me and helping me save others from the chaos."

Sazh's brow furrowed. "You haven't seen that imposter, right?"

"No. This is the first I've heard of her."

Sazh looked thoughtful, one eyebrow going down slightly further than the other. "Ask about her," he said. "I'm actually surprised he hasn't mentioned her. Doesn't seem quite like him. Actually… to be honest…" He tilted his head. "…you don't seem quite like _your_self, either. But, then, it's been five hundred years…"

Lightning let the silence stretch for a moment. "I will ask, I promise."

"Good idea. Meanwhile…" He turned away again. "…if you ever need me, I'll be right here."

It was a clear dismissal. Giving him a respectful nod, she turned away, seeing herself out of his living space. At the far end of the balcony was a set of makeshift steps onto the hull that she followed, before climbing down the rusted stepladder etched into the side of the hull and dropping to the ground. Feeling the springy earth underfoot eased her frustrations, but barely, and she took a moment to gaze up at Sazh until he turned away and vanished from her sight.

"I'm back where I started," she murmured into the mike.

Hope sighed. "You tried, Lightning, but don't give up. There may yet be a lead for Dajh."

She felt her chest tighten slightly. "I didn't waste time," she said. "That much is clear, at least. You're right. We'll solve the mystery of his disappearance yet." Switching off the mike again, she glanced over at the rainclouds and saw they were slightly closer now. Her chocobo, when she circled around the airship again, was where she left him, staring at her.

"What makes you think you can help Dajh?"

Lightning didn't bother to look – that voice had turned up enough times for her to know who it was. "What do you know about what happened to him, Lumina?"

The girl fell in step beside her. "Oh, you think I _stole_ him, is that it? That I'm keeping him far away from Sazh so daddy falls into deep despair?" She chuckled. "Sorry, but no. It wasn't me."

"Then you must know _who_," she said, and faced her suddenly.

Lumina only raised an eyebrow. "Maybe I do and maybe I don't. Either way, you're not getting much out of me, Liberator. Though, I will say, the whole thing about discussing it with the Order, not a bad idea."

Lightning felt her fingertips prickle. "How did you kn–"

"And you'll do it anyway, no matter how much you don't want to, because it's what you do and you just want all these people to be happy and safe again, right?" And with that, she vanished in a swirl of darkness, and Lightning was left staring at the void she left behind for a few minutes, wondering what that could possibly mean.

"Lightning, are you there?"

She turned back to her chocobo and climbed onto his back, saying, "Still here, Hope, what's up?"

"I found a small chaos emission somewhere in the forest. I'm trying to pinpoint its location, but it resembles the ones following both Sazh and Snow. I think there might be someone we knew with a strong burden out there. Once I have the location, I'll let you know."

Lightning looked out at the forest and its vastness. "Keep me posted. I'm moving out."

As she rode her steed out into the forest, heading for the network of valleys, canyons, and crevasses that surrounded the temple, she sensed a flash of darkness and twisted to look, quick as thought, hand on her blade.

There was nothing at all, but the weight of chaos sat on her heart.

"Easy, boy," she murmured, but her hand didn't reflect the words spilling from her lips. She thought of asking Hope if he picked up anything, but as the moments passed, the burden eased, though it lingered like a beast prowling about the fringes of forest shadows and sent tremors up and down her spine. It felt like the beast that had devoured a crowd of people in less than a minute last night, ripping the chaos from their bodies and killing them right after before vanishing into the emission from whence it had come.

A beast of shadow and many flailing tendrils, whose glowing eyes still bored into her in the back of her mind.

Shaking those memories away, she urged her mount onward.

* * *

><p>Sazh watched for a while, until the pink-haired woman upon her white-feathered mount vanished into the forest, and turned away, walking back inside and gazing at the boy, lying without moving – as he had for centuries – off in the corner. For a moment, his steps stuttered; Lightning's words danced through his mind. Was she right? Was he just watching over an empty casket in the shape of his boy? Was it pointless?<p>

_No_, he corrected, and shook his head. It could _never_ be pointless. It was his _son_. His one and only _son_.

"So, what's next? Anything new?"

Sazh stopped beside the fire, not bothering to look in the direction of the voice. "Same as always."

A girl's impish giggle met his ears. "Same, reliable Sazh. Five hundred years, and you haven't changed. You'll _never_ change. In fact…" And suddenly she was in front of him, hands folded behind her back, bright blue eyes boring straight into his. "…that makes me happy. You're always someone I can count on."

Sazh met Lumina's eyes, saying, "Am I?"

For an instant, her smirk faltered, and if he hadn't been watching carefully, he'd have missed it. He was sure. "Don't ever forget what happened here," she said, gesturing toward the boy. "Don't forget who did this, and don't _ever_ forget that because of him, your son…" Her smirk vanished, eyes growing solemn. "…is gone." She looked, just for a moment, utterly heartbroken, before vanishing in a wink of pale light.

Sazh stared at the space she left behind, thinking.

* * *

><p><em>Sazh will play a larger role here than he did in the game, and will reappear periodically throughout the story. One of my gripes with the game was that he got such a small role, so I'm hoping to rectify that somewhat. :) I will do my best to have weekly updates, but if my schedule gets too busy, chapters will come every 2-3 weeks, but (hopefully) no longer than that.<em>

_Also, throughout, I will use a mixture of tensai-shoujo's translations and the English localization, particularly in dialogue and story structure. It won't be obvious so much at the start, but hopefully moreso later on._

_Thanks for reading! Please enjoy!_


	3. Shadow of Valhalla

_**2 Shadow of Valhalla**_

A narrow crevasse divided the mountain and formed a natural path littered with stones and weeds. At the other end of this path, the bridge connected the cliff she stood on and the stony face of the temple ruins. The chocobo made a concerned hooting sound as she swung off his back and dropped to the ground. The impact echoed for a moment in the natural amphitheater. The sun shone right into the valley, turning the air overhead gold. It was _beautiful_; she stood for a moment, hands buried in her companion's fluffy feathers, and stared. Echoes and memories of emotions – awe and joy, mostly – flickered deep within her. Her memories of Gran Pulse were hazy, but she certainly recalled seeing beauty of this magnitude during her dangerous trek with the others long ago.

Again, the chocobo made a concerned sound; she reached up and gently tugged on his reins, shushing him. "Stay here until I get back. I know you don't want me going alone, but this has to be done. It's my job, you see?"

He gently pressed his beak to her shoulder.

"Stay here." She rubbed his forehead with one hand. "I'll be back, promise."

Turning toward the ruins, she took a hesitant step onto the bridge and heard it creak. The chocobo warbled and stomped one foot, but she took another step, and the bridge held. Exhaustion from running all over the world since one o' clock that morning seeped into her bones – many hours now without rest – but the endurance given to her as part of her job would keep her going until midnight.

With brisk but careful steps, she crossed the bridge. It linked two sides of a chasm, at the bottom of which ran a river bordered by sheer rock walls. As she approached the all-too-familiar structure, the air grew colder and thinner, until she stood in the shadows and gazed straight up at its scowling face. The breeze died as she came to the edge of the steps. Goosebumps rose on her skin. Clinging to every corner and wall were the cobwebs of bad memories she still hadn't gotten rid of. The top half of the temple had once existed, but she could still remember the moment it had been torn away by her enemy's wrath. The impact with the meteor still made her body hurt when she thought of it.

She swallowed and walked inside.

The gloom seemed unnatural and much too thick for mere shadows. The air felt cold and thin at the same time as it felt thick and stifling, as though every element in the universe collided here and warred endlessly about who would come out on top. The sunshine didn't make it inside. The only light was some sort of greenish-blue ambience she couldn't determine the exact source of.

The place stank of chaos – a cold, bitter, organic smell that brought back another flood of memories. She could not react with the right amount of anger, but some of it leaked through, emotion bleeding into her, before it slipped away into the mysterious void that had replaced her heart.

"Is anyone here?" Her voice echoed. The sound of her heart in her ears seemed to be the only noise. "This is the font of the chaos, isn't it?"

No response. She kept going, looking around at where her eternal war with her rival had decimated much of the ancient stone, toppling spires and breaking platforms, forming staircases and ramps where none had existed in the first place. She followed her instincts, heading upward, ascending wherever she could, climbing toward the throne room. The further up she went, the thicker and more disgusting the stink of chaos became, until it turned acrid and filled her nostrils with every breath.

"Getting tired, are we?"

Lightning stopped by a pile of rubble that connected to the next floor up. "What do you want?"

Lumina said nothing for a moment, perched on a railing above her and looking down without expression, her eyes shining in the ambient light. Lightning sensed the same heaviness and prickle of chaos hanging around the girl's deceivingly petite frame as she felt just before a chaos emission ripped a hole in a street. The girl seemed to be made of chaos, and her presence made the back of her neck itch. She stank of chaos, and when she left, there was always a void in space and time that quickly filled like a bubble burst underwater. Even her steps left behind prints made out of chaos, like a trail of blood wherever she went.

Lightning shivered and moved away, clawing her way up a pile of rubble. She slipped once, caught herself, and climbed the rest of the way to a platform jutting out into open space. Overhead, crumbled ruins had toppled into thin air, but now they hung suspended there, unmoving, frozen in time.

"I hope you're not here to cause problems," Lumina said. "Don't you have stuff to do? Like, help Sazh? And what about Noel and Snow and the others? Don't _they_ kind of matter to you?"

"Why does it matter to _you_?"

Lumina made a show of yawning and swinging her legs. "You've been here before, right?"

"Am I wasting time, Lumina?"

Lumina shrugged. "Depends. Why don't you walk out before you get in trouble?" She smirked; Lightning looked around again, getting the impression that something was watching her. "That's what you do best, right? Walk away, or throw yourself headfirst into it. No middle ground."

Lightning looked at her. "Who's here?"

Lumina plucked at a strap on her shoe. "Well, lots of people, but most of them look the same. But there's _one_ who won't like you being here. Don't you get it? There's no one to save here, just living corpses waiting for oblivion."

A cold feeling slunk through her blood. "I _knew_ it…"

The girl smirked at her. "You have no idea what's waiting for you here," she said, "but I do."

"It is a land choked in death. No one here desires your presence."

Lumina stopped plucking at the strap and looked in the direction of the new voice. In a swirl of shadow and smoke, she vanished, leaving Lightning standing slightly bewildered in a dusty atrium with no one else in sight. She hadn't imagined the voice, but no matter where she looked, she saw nothing at all. The voice left a faint echo behind that quickly faded. The ambient light filtered through the gloom as spots of blue-green and silver across the stone walls and cracked floor. No breeze touched her skin, and yet something stirred her robes and made them flutter quietly around her. The sensation of chaos suddenly filled the air, tendrils reaching out to spread across the entire atrium like shadows creeping across the world with the sun.

The voice brought back a thousand memories. She would know it anywhere – deep, strong, fierce, like the howl of a storm or the rumble of thunder.

"Caius Ballad." Her lips formed the words quickly, trying to sound casual, but instincts on alert. Her hand itched for her sword; her gaze darted all over, trying to pierce the darkness, but this was _his_ place, it always had been, and the ever-present chaos meant she could very well be out of her league here.

"Why have you come to these catacombs?"

Trying to pinpoint his location proved difficult – it sounded as though he were all around her. "To seek the truth of the chaos emissions we located from the Ark. I didn't expect to find _you_ here." She supposed, though, that she really _shouldn't_ have been surprised. He had proven resourceful and difficult to dispatch before.

The question, though, was _how_ he was here.

"They are the emissions devouring the world. They are responsible for the darkness in people's hearts."

Again, she looked around, but still saw nothing. "You're supposed to be dead."

"How incredibly observant of you."

"Don't patronize me, Ballad. I can still handle you."

A shadow moved, peeling away from a pillar to move into plain sight. She focused on it, fingers again itching for her sword, and recognized his distinctive stride as he passed between the pillars, a spot of slightly lighter darkness against the endless gloom. He had solid form, but it almost seemed as if he had fashioned it out of the chaos that surrounded them, and as she watched, she sensed a trail of chaos, like Lumina's, behind him.

"We first met when you were the goddess's knight." His tone mocked her. "Then, you _could_ have handled me." Then he moved into view, and the ambient light let her see him properly.

She felt a prick of anxiety at the sight of him. His physical appearance seemed no different than from five hundred years prior, but his eyes seemed colder and harder, lips pressed tighter together, and instead of the smirk she was used to, he greeted her with a stare. Something about his presence seemed dangerous, daring, and iron hard – far harder and _harsher_ than when she had known him before.

"But you are no knight of Etro now. Now–" And he raised a hand as he spoke, a flare of energy casting a cold light across his hard features. "–you are a mere hunter of souls."

She should have known better than to keep standing there. The shield on her arm could not go to her defense quickly enough. The energy burst moved with the quickness of her namesake through the stifling darkness, slashing into her with the force of a hammer blow. It pierced her chest, just below the collarbone, filling her with a burst of pain that turned her vision red. She toppled back, the floor suddenly gone, her feet briefly trying to find purchase in midair, stomach flipping over as she fell.

Far below, she struck the stone, rolling with the impact, but her limbs shivered, breathing sharp and shallow.

"You should go before you cause trouble."

Grunting softly, rising to one knee, she fixed her eyes on his, though his form blurred in the shadows hanging around him. A hand clutched at her chest, where it felt as though someone had stuck her with a knife, making her breathing tight and shallow, shadows slowly wavering about the entry point. It _hurt_, an incredibly painful throbbing sensation that threatened to make her head spin. It stifled her ability to sense the chaos, she noticed immediately, which made her feel oddly naked.

"Why aren't you dead?" A throb turned her words into a grunt of pain, hand pressed against the energy burning in her chest. "You _should_ be dead."

Caius did not move, only gazing down at her in silence. Her hand clenched and unclenched at her side. If the need arose, she could snatch her blade off her back. That could provoke him to attack, though, and she hadn't come this far just to get herself beat down by him once again. This place echoed with memories and sensations, images in her mind of endless war and the crushing pain of his power colliding with hers, of a hopeless heart, of an emptiness that had grown exponentially in this strange new world.

"If only death's release could have been mine." The cold void of his voice clashed with her last memory of one so filled with passion that it'd frightened her. "They will not let me die. Instead, I must exist as a corpse unfit for any meaningful existence."

Rubbing a hand across the wound, she realized it hadn't actually broken the skin or even the armor. It was merely a bloom of chaos. If she'd wondered if he hadn't wanted her around, it couldn't be any clearer than this.

"Good luck getting me to turn around," she said.

For an instant, his features weren't so cold. "I see. Very well. If you see fit to navigate these halls, do as you please."

As he spoke, his voice grew thin, she felt as though she heard it inside her head instead of around her, and he faded away. Grunting, she hoisted herself to her feet, glaring at the spot he had once occupied, and wondered what he had done to her. If she left, it would go away. Somehow, she knew that. The chaos wouldn't sting anymore, and she wouldn't waste any time going after a man who, obviously, didn't want her there.

But there were so many unanswered questions.

As she staggered forward, getting her breathing under control, she heard familiar skipping steps behind her. "You're the most stubborn thing I've ever met. You get turned into the Liberator and it's like you lose common sense. The man doesn't _want_ you here. That chaos? It's gonna make it hard to even think, much less move. There's places here you forgot about that'll make it worse." Lumina lifted an eyebrow when Lightning glared at her. "You're special."

Lightning wasn't in the mood. "I've got things I need to finish with him."

"He's pretty powerful. More powerful even than _you_. Sure you wanna go up against him all alone?"

"I've got to try."

"You hate him so much, but you go be a martyr anyway. Fine." The girl practically spat the last word. "Have it your way." And then she vanished in a wisp of shadow, and Lightning began scaling the rubble in front of her until she reached the next floor up.

As she approached the edge of a ruined balcony, something lit up in the darkness, casting a less sickly green glow across her path. A crackle of static from the headset startled her; she switched it off. The sheer amount of chaos in the area was probably blocking communication, anyway, and the last thing she needed was a distraction.

She turned toward the light and followed it up a broad staircase to another balcony higher up. Halfway there, she stumbled, vision clouding and head spinning. Her balance vanished; she staggered forward, tripped over a step, and landed on her knees.

"If you leave, the pain will end." Caius's familiar voice echoed around her. "You are wasting time."

She dragged herself to her feet. "I'm not leaving."

"I am nothing more than a corpse forced to wander these halls until the end comes. If you come after me, this is a place steeped in the shadow of the old world, a place where those who still live should never tread. There is nothing here for one such as you – nothing but old and bitter memories of you and me." Then his voice faded away, and her vision cleared enough for her to stand.

The light came from what appeared to be engravings in the walls around her. Once her eyes adjusted, she walked without missing a step. Her footsteps echoed in the eerie silence. There were no monsters here, oddly – so many had come out of the chaos in the outside world, but none here, where the chaos was at its thickest. Only the silence and wisps of chaos, accompanied by faint whispers when she brushed past them, came to her.

Eventually, after a bit of wandering, she entered a multilevel chamber. The light painted her surroundings in a haze that made it difficult to make anything out, but she saw a small human shape in the corner near a pile of rubble, and as she approached, the light outlined her face clearly enough for her to see who it was.

Lightning breathed, "Yeul?"

The girl standing before her looked like the girls she had seen pass through Valhalla – a sweep of green-tinted hair falling elegantly down her back, vivid green eyes gazing at her from beneath thick dark lashes, a small and young face, caught in a soft glow of greenish light that came from everywhere and nowhere. Lightning stopped cold. It was the seeress, but curled around her legs were wisps of whispering darkness.

"You have been lead here, Liberator, to the fountainhead of the chaos." The green-eyed girl spoke softly.

Lightning blinked. "So that's what this place is."

The girl looked strong, but her eyes were sad, and for a few moments, there was silence. Her eyes fell to the floor, and Lightning stared at her. "You have been lead here, where only you can ease the pain of the eternally-suffering soul. Do it for me, Liberator, and save my Guardian, the one who cannot find rest. Please, save Caius."

Lightning felt a flicker of a memory at the girl's plea. She couldn't… _quite_ remember how she felt about the man, now that he no longer stood before her. Was it hatred? Anger? Bitterness? Sorrow? A mix of emotion, settling in the pit of her stomach, tied her insides into a knot. Part of her couldn't believe she was being asked to save the one who had brought the world to this state to begin with.

"What do you mean, save him?" she murmured. "What's going on?"

The girl looked uncomfortable, features twisting slightly, before breathing slowly and looking away. "He has lost his immortal heart, and with it, his will to live."

Lightning thought of her rival's unwavering will and stubborn refusal to listen, and found this difficult to believe.

"He longs for death. Can you bring it to him?"

The woman _almost_ smirked, but quickly decided against it. "Death, or salvation from the chaos in his heart?"

"Whichever you can, he will take either one."

She frowned. "So, he tried to defy fate and ended up in a trap of his own doing." Only the whisper of the wind filled the silence that followed as she slowly shook her head. "I shouldn't be surprised." Grunting softly and looking up at the balcony she had yet to scale to, she thought of the war and the scars he had left – literal, and figurative.

"Please try," the girl said gently. "I will build bridges as you need them and lead you there. He waits in the throne room." As she spoke, she raised a hand and pointed at the balcony. Wisps of chaos created platforms leading from the floor to the railing – all spaced just right for her to climb. "It is his doing that trapped him," she murmured, "and our own. You must save him from our hand."

Lightning began to climb. Behind her, the girl vanished in a wisp of smoke.

It felt strange wandering the grand halls and scattered rubble without Hope's voice in her ear. He was probably getting worried, but she didn't feel like trying to reach him at the moment. If he could pierce the chaos at all, he would know she was fine, and if he couldn't, well… he'd just have to wait.

As she passed a hall to her left, she glanced down it, and for a moment, heard the sound of crashing blades.

The bloom of chaos stabbed her in the heart.

Clear as day, memories of being dragged from reality by irresistible shadows, pulled into an infinite realm of light and dark and time, forced to witness changing history, and then dropped onto a crystal-laden beach came to her, one after the other, hitting her like stones. So much _pain_ piercing her heart, coupled with echoes of memories she knew were not entirely hers – _his_ essence flowed through here as well, thick and dark, seeping into her bones, heavy with the memory of his triumph, sour with her own bitterness and tears.

Dizzy from the sensations surging from the chaos, she turned away and stumbled on, gritting her teeth as the bloom in her chest gnawed at her heart.

Only when she had put a significant distance between herself and the memories did the pain finally die away.

At the foot of more impassable rubble, a girl appeared.

Lightning approached cautiously but curiously, looking the girl up and down. She looked different from last time, hair arranged a little differently and eyes shadowed in smoky makeup that told her the girl had come from a time of strife – it resembled warrior's paint, accentuating the piercing mystery of her eyes, bringing out the sharp slant of her dark eyebrows. Even her skin seemed tinged gold, as though she had spent a lot of time in the sun, and there was a tiny red bloom woven into her hair near her ear.

"You're a different Yeul," Lightning murmured, feeling as though she stated the obvious.

The girl looked her dead in the eye and nodded once. "Do you know what this place is, Liberator? Do you know how all of this came to be?"

Lightning glanced around the chamber at the gloomy lighting and shadowy corners. She actually hadn't explored all that much of this mysterious place – the chamber around her was foreign to her eyes, free of the scars of war. The two of them had never made it here during their skirmishes, and she had never taken the time between battles to see much of this labyrinth except a few lower levels and the throne room.

"I know it was a place in Valhalla, once the center of a great city long since fallen silent." Her heart tightened, but not from the chaos. "It had been my prison."

"Yours, and Caius's." This girl's voice seemed a little harder than the first's, but still had the melodic touch of ancient tradition on it. "Now, he is trapped here. We had given him the gift of immortality, so that we may be with him forever, but it was not meant to be."

Lightning looked at the girl again. "I thought Etro made him immortal."

"That was how it began." Her eyes turned downcast. "He rejected the gift and sought instead a way to bring about the end of time. Throughout his long journey, some of us tried to stop him, but each time he lost one of us, it only drove him harder and further. Now, we have come to the end."

Confused, Lightning looked all around, expecting him to appear. "The end," she murmured.

"You _must_ save him – from his nightmares, and from us."

Lightning returned her gaze to Yeul. "You're a different Yeul, with a different wish and different desires. Okay, fine, let's say I save him. What then?"

Wisps of chaos came together then, creating a wavering platform that led to the next level of the temple. It curled around in a sort of chaotic corkscrew that bypassed several floors. "What, indeed," Yeul echoed softly. "We can't live forever with him then, can we? And if he chooses to die…" She stopped, fingers flexing; Lightning looked her up and down. "If he dies, we can't be with him. We… had only wished to spend eternity with him, but while it was a desire he shared, the way it was bestowed on him was… not what he wanted."

Lightning snorted softly, an ache passing through her heart at the girl's words. "Not what he wanted" was one of the biggest understatements she had yet heard. Obviously he hadn't _wanted_ it, because he had torn apart the world and sent it spiraling permanently into despair.

And now, the end would come, and if she couldn't drag him away from the chaos, he'd go with it.

She wasn't sure how to feel about that.

"Save the one who cannot rest, and ease his pain, however you can." The girl pleaded, but sounded ashamed at the same time. Her eyes came back up from where they'd rested on the cold stone and landed squarely on Lightning's without wavering. "Go to him, Liberator, and save him from us."

Lightning nodded and continued on her journey.

"_Lightning_! Can… –ear me?"

The woman stopped dead in her tracks and nearly tore the com out of her ear. The burst of static had been _quite_ loud. "I'm fine, Hope, don't panic." She hesitated long enough to turn it down a little. "Couldn't you… _see_ me down here, or is there too much interference?"

"The chaos re–… –ing very high. There's– …from the temple. Can you–"

The line crackled and went dead; Lightning suddenly felt very alone, and a rush of memories flooded her when she looked around again – of crashing blades, broken bones, bruises, blood, and war – _endless war_, something she couldn't forget, _wanted_ to forget, but the scars he had left… not all of them would heal with time.

She would carry them to the new world, where they would remain throughout her days.

A hand went to her sword – she wanted to lift it free and break _something_, suddenly in agony, unable to forget all of what had happened here. The living nightmare. The endless war. The eternal struggle between her determined light and Caius's chaotic shadow. Something that should be nothing more than legend, but she had _lived_ it, and nothing could remove the hurt that still stained her soul.

_You are wasting your time. Leave us before it is too late for someone else_. His voice echoed around her; she clutched at the bloom of chaos and prayed this would be over soon.

At the top of the corkscrew, she found one more girl with air falling to mid-back and pulled out of her face, a little older than the other ones – sixteen, maybe – with serious eyes and a strained expression. Lightning approached her with a degree of wariness, feeling uncomfortable beneath this girl's steady gaze.

"Do you know what we are, Liberator?"

_I have a name_, Lightning almost said. "Only that you are copies of a single person, born from the chaos, and you're the cause of the world's end."

"Of the latter, more than you know." She stretched out her hand; chaos flared from her fingers and wrapped around the woman like tendrils of shadow, making the chaos in her chest flare brighter, and she couldn't breathe, having to close her eyes when it burned them, and then it squeezed her chest, and–

The dark cloud only she could see. Cocoon drenched in shadow. Tendrils of darkness dragging into the earth when it cracked open beneath her. Valhalla's crystal beach.

The darkness – the chaos – gently laying her on the sand where the waves lapped.

"All of the chaos around you? All of _our_ chaos?" The girl hesitated, eyes narrowing. "It is the chaos that came for you and took you from the world. We caused the decay, and broke the dam. We brought Caius's madness upon him, and _we_ ultimately destroyed the world."

Lightning struggled, strained, and fell back, landing on the stone on her hands and knees, somehow having twisted enough while falling to do so. "The Unseen Chaos is _you_?" she spat out, and enough anger – hidden deep, but not gone altogether – came to her eyes to make her glare back at the girl one of blue fire.

"More or less," the girl said, calmly.

"The world is decaying and _dying_, and I got dragged to Valhalla, and the timeline died, and– and all of–" The woman struggled to her feet, reigning in her anger. "It all happened because _you_ couldn't let go of Caius, because you _needed_ to be with him forever?"

Yeul wasted no time before saying, "Yes, Liberator, I _do_ need him. He is _everything_ to me, and I cannot be without him. We gladly returned by Etro's hand because we did not wish to be alone. _I_ could not bear to be alone. We may not be able to touch, or to be together as I would have hoped, but we _are_ together."

Lightning stared at her. "I'm not getting involved."

"Too late," a voice said from behind; Lightning turned to see Lumina leaning against the wall, the girl seemingly having appeared out of nowhere. Lightning snorted softly – did she just appear and disappear at will? "Because you didn't leave when _we_ told you to, you've gone and got yourself in trouble. Now you're in the middle of it. You got dragged into the mess, and now you've gotta help clean it up. Got it?"

Lightning stared at her. "What am I supposed to do?"

"I'm not the one that gave you that task." Lumina ran her fingers through her ponytail, blue eyes serious. It was an unusual expression coming from this girl. Lightning felt cold. "If you want to know how _you_ should fix a problem like this, you better ask _them_."

The woman's eyes roved over the darkness to see shadows in the shape of girls standing all around – on pillars, on broken columns, on evidence of war and strife and pain – and felt her skin crawl. _Hundreds_ of these girls, if not _thousands_ of them, all of them gazing at her, expectantly, waiting for her to fulfill their desires, ease their pain, and set them all free. Waiting for her to be a good little Liberator and free their Guardian from the suffering he had brought upon himself.

And she said, quietly, "Some of you want him to live. Some of you want him to be free. All of you care deeply for him, but you _can't agree_." She spun around, hearing the shadows begin to whisper, feeling her hair stand on end. "Each one of you contradicts the other in some way. You're a _mass_ of contradictions that can't be solved. I can't fix you. I can't fix _any_ of you, and I _know_ I can never fix _him_, not when this is going on."

"But if you save him, you might quiet the chaos," Lumina said.

"Might," Lightning growled, and faced the first girl, who gazed back without emotion. "What do you expect me to do? What do you _want_ from me?"

"We just want him to stop… _suffering_ so much." It was a Yeul to her right, standing by a broken pillar, hugging her arms and looking miserable. "It is all because of us. You are right, Liberator, in what you said, in that we contradict each other. No, we _cannot_ be solved. We cannot be fixed."

"The chaos – our chaos – is all the love we have ever held for him," another of the girls, to the left of Lightning, said when the second one finished. "You _must_ save him from it."

Lightning felt as though she were being pulled in many directions at once, with no one paying any mind to how _she_ might feel about all of this. All that mattered was how these _girls_ felt, because _they_ were holding the world in their hands and crushing the life out of it, and there was nothing she could do in the face of their power.

"But I–" She shifted her weight and looked around. "I might not be able to…"

"Please," the second girl said, "you must at least try."

"For us," the third one said.

Lightning looked to her right. The throne room was now only one level up. "Then, take me to him, and I _will_ try."

The first girl summoned a final set of steps with a wave of her hand and nodded. "Go on, then."

Lightning ignored the stares and made her final steps toward destiny.

* * *

><p><em>So, we get into the meat of the story, and things will be more interesting from here on out. I appreciate your favorites and follows, but please be sure to drop reviews as well, as they're the fuel that keeps my fingers flying over this keyboard and the incentive to keep me going. Also, this is one of my larger projects, so expect it to more or less approach the length of Hearts in Chaos. Thanks for reading, and I hope y'all enjoy!<em>


	4. Nexus

_**3 Nexus**_

She walked into the throne room, hearing echoes of memory all around her, seeing the evidence of her enemy's anger in the missing top half of the temple, exposing her gaze to swirling chaos mingling with murky sunlight so gray and dark that it only barely resembled its true nature. Her steps sounded hollow, scuffing on the stone, and the flutter of her armor sounded incredibly loud in the unbearable silence

Dead ahead, no longer shining with its ethereal silver light, the crystal throne, once the stead of Etro, towered over her, still floating in its abyss.

And atop it, not even looking at her, was Caius.

Lightning stopped in her tracks and clenched her fist around her blade, which she had drawn just outside the throne room. It was the first time she had personally seen him sitting there, but for all she knew, he might have sat there in her absence many times since the world's end. He owned it, she could see, perfectly comfortable in that position of obvious power, not at all disturbed by her presence.

"You are wasting time," was his greeting after a few moments of complete silence. "Are you so stubborn and so desperately seek vindication that you must come here to face me once again?"

She shifted her weight. "Yeul asked me to try."

"She asked you to come here, to this place of bitter memories, to save the one who had caused the death of the world to begin with?" Now he did look at her, but it was so dark that she could only tell from a change in his silhouette. "And you did not reject her request? Your stubbornness has not waned."

She lifted her sword a little, watching it shine dully in the thick shadows shrouding them both. The crushing weight of the chaos he bore like a robe wrapped around him reached her despite the bloom in her chest. "If fulfilling her wish brings her chaos under control, even if only to give me a little more time, then I will do it." Though she spoke in a loud, strong voice, she tried not to shout, despite it being her first instinct upon seeing him.

"Yet she asked you to save me, did she not?"

"She–" Lightning swallowed, left hand briefly touching the bloom of chaos in her chest. While it made it a little difficult to breathe, it didn't otherwise impede her at the moment. "–did."

He rose to his feet. "I refuse."

And he dared mock _her_ stubbornness? "I didn't come here seeking your _permission_," she retorted, raising the blade further to point it directly at him.

He was on the ground and in front of her so fast that only her instincts kept her alive – stumbling back, blade coming up to deflect his sudden strike, the familiar ring of metal on metal making her head ache for a moment. When she got her wits about her again and regained her balance, it was to stare straight down the length of a sword fashioned in the shape of a flare frozen in time, and at the far end was her rival.

"You could have refused her and saved yourself the time."

She swallowed again. "Too late now, isn't it?"

His eyes were hard and cold, practically void of emotion, as though he had drawn everything he was deep inside and closed it off tight where no one else could ever see or find it. "Though she desires my freedom, her contradictive nature may make it… difficult for you to fulfill that." He hesitated a moment after speaking, then withdrew, giving her room to breathe. "Yet, you have come this far. Do your best, hunter of souls, and save me from the evil that has claimed me." Again, he hesitated, and, briefly, a smirk passed across his lips. "If you can."

Was he taunting her, or warning her? Gathering her strength, she bent her knees slightly in her battle stance and looked him right in the eye. Memories of past wars came to her, reminding her of all the tricks he had used in the past. With that knowledge, she had a fair chance to survive.

"My soul is chained by chaos. You will have to take it by force, Liberator."

"That's not going to be a problem."

He reversed his grip on his sword, but didn't look otherwise concerned – not that he ever did, of course. "You may wish to be less hasty with your confidence."

Lightning gritted her teeth. "No more destiny, no more fate," she murmured, and gripped her sword two-handed, angling the blade across her body. "Let's end this _here_, once and for all."

She saw him twitch before he moved, and matched his stride, their blades coming together as one.

The collision blades felt like old times – and yet not, making her head ache more than the first time, and when they met, he overpowered her in an instant, pushing her back, making her stumble and barely manage to keep her feet beneath her. Barely did she have time to look up when she saw a flare of pinkish light coming right at her and ducked again, this time leaping to the side, and stone shattered behind her, sending pieces of it flying up into the air. They clattered around her, some of them landing right on her.

Scrambling away from him when he came after her, she leapt to her feet, turned, and deflected his strike, falling into the rhythm he made, deflecting strikes aimed at her head, her torso, her legs, and her armor's lengths of cloth flew about her, flicking into her peripheral vision, fluttering in the brief moments of silence. For a minute, it was just blades and instinctual footwork, barely staying out of each other's way, the rhythm beginning to feel familiar, and she stepped into the flow easily enough after a few rusty instants, but then he feinted, reversed his grip again, and went right for her legs, and she had to hop back to avoid it and went stumbling over a pile of rubble, landing on her back on the stone, hard enough to knock the wind out of her.

She brought her sword up, and he brought his down, his left hand seizing her wrist and putting enough pressure on the bones to make her wince from the pain… so she returned the favor, applying pressure through the thick armor protecting his bones from her attacks, making his eyes narrow.

With his eyes on hers, she kicked him in the torso; he grunted sharply and landed on his back on the stone.

She summoned some strength and came after him.

And got a nice blast of white fire to the chest for her trouble, clenching her chest in a vise, sending her to ground.

He was on her faster than before; she rolled just enough to avoid the strike.

When she backpedaled away, he sent another blast into a column behind her, causing it to topple, again stopping her in her tracks. He vanished in a wisp of smoke and reappeared behind her, but instead of running her through, he hit her with one elbow, sending her flying, but she rolled with it onto her feet, feeling the fire of war burn through her veins in a familiar flash of heat. She gave him a taste of his fury by sending out several blasts of white fire that exploded on impact; through it, she heard him grunt and hit the stone.

With a warrior's shout, she sprang back into the fray, having blinded him enough to get the upper hand, pounding him with strike after strike, some of them with a blade lit with flame, sparks raining off his sword where she found bits of metal to chip away, superheated and then cooling before they hit the ground. When he sidestepped to dodge a strike, she knocked him back, where he landed against a pillar.

She sprang; he vanished, and she landed where he had been. Whirling in place, she held her shield at the ready, her sword held out, and it was good she did, for when he reappeared, it was for an instant before he vanished again to reappear at her side, and then again, and again, until she decided to pull out some of her own powers and face him with a burst of speed she used to catch him and force him back again.

When she swung her blade, she cracked open a pillar, sending a shower of stone dust through the air, bits of it flying into her face. Huge chunks of stone toppled over; she bolted away from it, and they struck him instead, making him fall back. Seeing an opening, she pressed the attack, but then a whirlwind of fire and shadow stopped her in her tracks, nearly making her fall to her knees as she slashed out.

"_Enough_!" was her snarling reaction to this, and so she struck out with everything she had, both hands gripping her sword as she swung it like a bat in a swift, slightly angled arc in front of her.

Something broke open; she heard him yelp.

For a few instants, everything was dead silent, save for the whispers in the chaos curling about the pillars. Lightning didn't dare do anything more than grit her teeth and point her sword in the general direction of the sound until the smoke cleared and she could see again.

Caius had ended up on the other side of the landing, lying partly facedown in what remained of a pillar he had snapped in half by landing on it. Covered in rubble and dust, he didn't move, twisted into a somewhat unnatural position with half his body trapped under a broken slab of the pillar. His eyes appeared to be closed, but in the gloom, it was difficult to tell even if he were breathing.

Lightning suddenly realized she _was_ breathing, hard, chest heaving, the chaos bloom leaving an ache near her heart that made it a little difficult to focus. Her sword trembled. Some of their wars had paused like this, brief moments of heart-pounding terror, before one of them sprang back to life and continued on with twice the ferocity. If he stood up now, she wasn't entirely sure she would stand a chance against his fury.

Stone scraped and dust puffed into the air; Caius moved, slowly rising to his feet, staggering a little when he made it, blood smeared across one cheek and staining his hair, armor singed and scraped. "Your ferocity has not waned, I can see," he murmured, and had some obvious trouble remaining on his feet. Dark eyes bored into hers, creased a bit in the skin from what seemed to be discomfort. "Though you fight for my soul, it is one you cannot save."

Lightning frowned, still holding her sword up, taking no chances.

His cruel-looking sword hovered in the air; he pitched it straight up, only briefly taking his eyes from hers, and into the swirl of darkness and muddled sunlight it flew, vanishing for an instant. Something twisted his lips, darkened his gaze, and stiffened his stance, and then the sword came back and pinned him to the stone, ripping a pained grunt from him as his body abruptly struck the ground.

She felt a startled gasp tear from her lips, taking a half-step forward. For a moment there was nothing, only his lifeless body slumped over, impaled by his own blade, eyes still open but staring blankly into the chaotic skies. Lightning felt her heart pounding, the bloom of chaos aching a little more, as the darkness swirled around them without ceasing.

Then, with hissing whispers, tendrils came, encircling his body in obvious tenderness. A pale wink of light followed, casting strange shadows.

And then he rose to his feet from a crouched position, the blood gone, everything neat and shiny as though he were a newborn. Even his armor shone in the blue-black gloom that surrounded them. Lightning, wary, stayed back, eyes on his, heart slowing somewhat, refusing to take her gaze from his too-steady one – a gaze that looked ancient now, where once it had raged with hate and fiery determination.

"It is true that Yeul desires my freedom." Caius spoke firmly, without hesitation, and Lightning sensed a bed of coals beneath his words. "All the same, she cannot be without me. She wants you to fulfill her deepest desires, but she is an unsolvable paradox, and her wishes, ultimately, are empty."

Tendrils of darkness still hung around him, though faint now. She stared at them, trying to comprehend. "What are you talking about?"

His eyes flicked to her blade before returning to hers. "Yeul is not a single person, in essence. She is many shards of a person, copies of a girl from the ancient world, and each time she left this world, her memory would merge with the Sea of Chaos, but never truly fade. The chaos became a separate entity over the centuries, and now, it is Yeul – her memories, her dreams, desires, and all the negativity that comes with being… human."

For a moment, he looked down at himself, extending a hand. A tendril of shadow curled around it and whispered words she didn't understand. Lightning glanced around at the grand throne room, feeling echoes of memories ranging from sorrow to pain. Her mild anger still burned inside, though she felt it flicker a little as he spoke.

Then she said, "If she's the essence of the chaos, she _can't_ let you go."

"Did she tell you she could not be alone?"

She nodded stiffly, once.

"She is only a child. She never had the chance to grow up, and centuries of memories cannot replace a mortal lifetime of experiences. She wishes her Guardian to be with her in the darkness to come, so…" The pause was so brief that she nearly missed it. "…her Guardian will do as she wishes."

"Your soul is chained to the darkness now," she murmured. "That's your plan?" Finally, she lowered her sword, letting it hang at her side, getting the impression the man was not an immediate threat to her. "Go headfirst into the darkness and exist for eternity in the chaos after the end of the world?"

Both hands came up, and shadows emanated from his skin and armor. Lightning felt her breath catch slightly and her heart beat cold blood, just once. "I am a shell of what I used to be, a being of chaos, my soul restrained by chains I shaped with my own hands from the shadows," he said, still gazing steadily at her. Beneath that hard stare, she felt very small – a feeling she didn't like at all. "This body will be cast into the Sea of Chaos, and I will be its overseer, a being of darkness and death, who will never see the new world."

She reminded herself that he _had_ brought this fate upon himself, and he deserved it. Everything that had happened – Serah's death, time twisted, the flood of chaos, Noel's nightmare, Snow's sadness, Sazh's solemnity, the impending end of all things – had been brought about by _his_ hand. She knew that no amount of atonement could ever fix it, and nothing could ever make her forgive him. How _could_ she? He had taken _everything_ from _everyone_, and in return, he deserved to have his future stolen from _him_.

She felt a knot in her gut all the same.

"You can't atone by doing that," she muttered. "Even if you spend the rest of eternity behaving perfectly, do you know how many lives you ruined? Do you really think that throwing yourself at the end of the world will give any of us remaining behind any peace?"

The smirk he gave her was brief and bitter, and he glanced to his left, drawing her gaze. She followed it, and saw a girl-shaped bloom of chaos, and another, and another – _dozens_ of them, surrounding the two warriors, the whispers growing louder, but she could still discern no words. Some of them seemed upset, their gazes either meeting hers or fixed on the stone.

One of them, though, stared straight at her, and another, head slightly bowed, she recognized as the second girl she had encountered here.

Lightning stared at the girl with the war paint. "You wanted me to grant _your_ wish. But you still want to be here?"

"I want him free," she said, "but… I want to stay."

Lightning, feeling her chest tighten at the plight of these innocent girls, clenched and unclenched her free hand, eyes downcast. At the same time, she felt a sense of bitterness – their plight meant that Caius could never be saved from the fate he had brought upon himself. But, it didn't matter "He doesn't want to be saved," she said, "and because of that… I can't do anything. I…" A furrow tugged at her brow. "I failed every one of you."

A whisper passed through the assembly; they vanished in a twist of smoke.

"Now, leave us, Liberator." After the whispers and the gentle voice of the girl, Caius's strong voice slashed through the blanket-thick quiet like a blade. "Save those who can still be."

She turned in time to see him vanish as well.

Sitting atop the throne now was a pink-haired girl with a confident smile, chuckling softly in the silence. Lightning stared at her, feeling cheated. She'd wasted her time coming here, wasted her energy fighting him rather than – once _again_ – doing as he had advised. Now, she had fewer precious minutes to spend saving the ones she loved, instead of squandering those minutes on a man she could almost say she hated. So what if he would be lost with the world's end? It didn't matter to her, not when too much else was at stake.

Then she heard something, and looked to her left. A girl, between fifteen and sixteen, stood near the destroyed pillar, her green eyes solemn. "I told him I would see him again," she murmured.

Lightning hesitated. "See who?"

"The…" Her lips moved, forming words, but all that came out was, "…_one_." And then she too vanished, lost on the ethereal breeze like a cobweb caught in a storm, and Lightning was alone with Lumina.

"Well, _she's_ got somethin' to live for," Lumina said. "Guess she loved somebody other than Caius, huh?"

Lightning thought of Noel. "Maybe she did."

There was a lengthy pause; Lightning turned her back to the girl. "So, you can't save everybody after all. At least now you know why you got dragged to Valhalla, and how, and why we all told you not to bother with him. Well, now you've got to make up for lost time. How does it make you feel, not saving him or the Yeuls?"

"I can't save those who don't want to be," Lightning said.

As she walked forward, out of the throne room, Lumina hummed softly to herself, then stopped, letting the silence seep into the woman's bones. "Okay, so you can't save him. We all knew that coming in. Even _you_ kind of knew it in the back of your mind, right? Well, do you think he's a threat anymore?"

She answered truthfully. "No, I don't."

"He _is_ pretty powerful, though," the girl continued. She hummed a moment again. "What do you wanna bet he _let_ you win so you'd stop wasting time on him? The world's full of chaos, and he can control it without any effort at all. Pretty amazing when you think about it, that–"

Lightning stopped at the entrance and half-turned. "Is there something you want to say to me, Lumina?"

Lumina cocked an eyebrow. "He'd make a powerful ally."

The woman's namesake flashed through her blood all the way to her fingertips. She couldn't be saying what she thought the girl was implying. "He won't leave here, and besides, I'm powerful enough. I don't need any help facing whatever gets thrown at me. I can han–"

Lumina laughed, long and loud, and said through it, "_Handle_ it? Look at you, getting pounded by one of those five-ton dragons, and nearly shredded by that chaos beast!" She hopped to the ground and twirled her ponytail around one finger, tilting her head, blue eyes bright. Intelligent. _Mischievous_. "You think you can do everything alone, don't you? Let me put it this way, then: he's powerful, and… do _you_ think he's happy?"

Lightning's brow furrowed. "What are you getting at?"

The girl came closer, blue eyes shining, pink lips smirking. "All you have to do is ask. If he says no, you barely spent a minute on it." The smirk vanished; she shrugged. "If he says yes, you've got somebody to watch your back when things get rough – which, they will," she added, and nodded as she finished. "You haven't seen all the things waiting out there yet. There's far worse things than a couple of chaos beasts and a big red dragon."

The woman thought this over, surprising herself. Bring Caius Ballad, the great Valhallian warrior, along with her on a journey to save the very people he had cursed?

"If I ask," she said, "do you promise to leave me alone to do my job?"

Lumina shrugged. "That's pushing it, but…" She tilted her head. "…for a little bit, sure." With a final nod, she winked out of sight, leaving Lightning completely alone.

In the oppressive silence, she began to feel silly, staring at the swirling darkness with empty eyes and a confused heart. After a few moments, though, she turned away, walking out of the throne room, heading back toward the spiral of light that would eventually return her to the earth outside, where she would rejoin her chocobo companion and go back to doing her job as she had been instructed not very long ago.

Halfway to the spiral, her steps stuttered, and faltered.

In some other future, some other universe, she hadn't cast a thought to it. In some other future, she _had_ thought about it and decided not to go through with it. In some other future, everything went as planned, and the path to the new world went on as normal – no deviation, no blight, no evidence of a stray thought marring her way, and no soldier of chaos at her side. Instead, he was only a bitter memory plaguing her heart that faded with time until he was forgotten in the shadows of the past as though he had never been.

The hands of destiny pulled her onto a new path.

Lightning turned back in a rustle of fabric, brushing past the pillars, returning to the throne room. Her steps echoed, scraping on the stone; she halted in the center, gazing up at the ever-swirling chaos overhead. Some ethereal breeze stirred her hair; she lifted a hand to tuck it out of her face. The sword at her side returned to her back.

She took a breath, and said, "Caius, I need to speak to you."

Silence but for the whispers overhead.

Lightning frowned and spoke louder after wetting her lips with the tip of her tongue. "Caius Ballad, I know you can hear me. I have something I need to ask you."

The breeze scraped the stone; the whispers grew louder, like soft cries of dismay and fear, and a flash of anxiety surged through the air, making her skin prickle. The breeze came again, blowing her hair into her eyes; she tucked it back again, having to use both hands. The shadows thickened, the whispers grew even louder, and then–

"Why do you insist on such a senseless waste of precious time?"

She turned to see him, a vision of shadow and chaos, still gaining solid form from the darkness, tendrils drawing into him as he shaped his body from the gloom.

Facing him, she stopped her lips from trembling. "You're very powerful," she said. "A master of the chaos, still immortal, and with centuries of knowledge. I'm powerful on my own, but not like I should be. I face this ordeal alone." Her voice cracked slightly; she drew breath and continued, "I've already faced several powerful adversaries, but one of them was a beast of pure chaos." Her skin prickled at the memory of glowing eyes and jaws of shadow. "I couldn't kill it, and in the end, I had to turn and run. Without shame, I'll add."

Caius's gaze never wavered. It certainly looked different from before, when they'd had their last war, and his eyes smoldered with the muted burn of coals rather than the solar flares that had dominated them before. "Do you have a reason for drawing my attention from my charge, Liberator?"

Lightning blinked at his demand. "I remember Valhalla. You're a master of chaos and warfare. I can probably do this alone, but…" For a moment, her mind drifted to the boy in the Ark in the sky, wishing he were with her side, but also understanding that he could never be, and she shook her head. "I don't like it, Caius, but Lumina has a point when she says you'd make a powerful ally. Come with me."

His gaze, again, never wavered, but his lips twitched. "The destroyer of the world, accompany the woman chosen to be a guiding light?"

"Well…" She stared, shrugged, and said, "Yes."

"Why would I do such a thing?" His eyes grew stern. "Tell me, Liberator, and quickly. I have more pressing matters than your prattling."

Her teeth snagged the inside of her lip. "I can't save you," she murmured, "and I won't try, but if you want to atone, maybe you shouldn't hand off your mess to somebody else. Maybe you should get your hands dirty again. Maybe there's…" A pause; she swallowed. "…some things in life you just _do_."

Silence. They stared at each other, and neither of them moved, or really so much as breathed, as she sensed herself holding her breath, heart starting to pound. Any moment, and he would tell her to go on her way and fix his mess for him. Any moment, and she could just walk out of here. What reason would he have for going with her? His method of atonement was a bit extreme, but it had _him_ written all over it. It was something he could throw his very existence into, a duty that would rule him for eternity – much as his duty as a Guardian had until this point.

Then he said, "Leave us, and do not return."

Lightning blinked, nodded, and turned away, leaving the throne room, possible futures, a new destiny, and her old enemy, far behind, forever.

As she walked, the bloom of chaos vanished with a breathy sigh.

* * *

><p>The darkness swirled around him as it had since his arrival here. There were no more whispers. For the first time in recent memory, there was silence when he stood in the throne room, alone but for the shadows of the girls' essence all about him, their tender gazes always on him. He stared at the entrance to the throne room, thinking of the woman who had just walked away. She had given him an offer, not to be saved from the darkness – because it could not be done, as he had discovered for himself over the past five centuries – but to help atone for what he had done. It had been a terrible temptation, one he barely resisted.<p>

There could be no salvation for him, but perhaps he could have helped soften the transition to the new world for those whom he had so badly hurt.

Staring into the darkness, after a bit, he smirked, snorted softly, and told himself it was time to go.

But her words lingered, and he remained rooted to the spot in defiance of his will.

_Maybe there's some things in life you just do_.

To be able to leave this temple, feel the sun again, see the stars, _face_ the consequences of his actions, help keep the woman forced to clean up his mess safe… these were all desires of his heart, restrained by the darkness. He could do nothing to change his fate, but he knew what awaited her in the world. He _knew_ the monsters that came at night, the darkness in the hearts of the people, what waited at the end of it all. She _could_ do it alone, but it would be far easier for her to save those whose lives he had ruined with him at her side.

But… he had a purpose _here_, an eternal duty he could not abandon even for a moment. He had tried to leave before, and they had kept him here against his will.

And so, eventually, he had succumbed to their desires. It was no use fighting, no matter what he tried.

More than that, he knew she would eventually reject his presence, much more so his aid.

"She can do this on her own. You know this."

Caius turned enough to see one of the girls, wreathed in shadow, standing a few feet away from him. From the way her hair fell down her back – slightly shorter than the others girls', and with a few small braids behind each ear – he recognized her, instantly, as the one Noel so dearly loved. "Yet I have had to watch the world die for five centuries."

The girl's eyes briefly narrowed, as though in concern. "Now, you have the chance to help."

"What purpose would it serve? Even so, I cannot leave."

"No, for we have kept you here," said another voice, a bit huskier than the first, and a girl formed out of the shadows with piercing green eyes that fixed on him immediately. She was one of the oldest girls clinging to him, the one with the most feeling, the one he remembered as being particularly fond of him in life. "I am not heartless, my Guardian. You will be with us forever after these days are done. Do you wish to help her now?"

He glanced at the other girl. She met his gaze, but her eyes seemed to plead with his. "If I help her, not only can I help those I have wronged, but I may yet ease the burden for you."

"For we, too, have seen the world die." The second girl tilted her head, lips slightly forming a smile. "You would do this for us? Am I still the brightest light in your heart?"

There was no hesitation before he said, "Always. No one could ever take your place in my heart, or even join you."

The first girl whimpered softly; he glanced at her again.

There was silence before a whisper passed through the swirling darkness. A congregation of girl-shaped shadows coalesced around him, almost as far as the eye could see, all whispering, all fluttering in the ethereal breeze. It was a fairly normal occurrence; he kept his gaze on the second girl.

"If you so choose, we will allow you the chance to ease our burden," she said. "There is but one stipulation."

He said, "Whatever you wish of me."

"Each night, when she returns to the Ark, you must return to us for a time. You must be _here_, with us. It will pain us to be apart from you." The emotion in her eyes sharpened. "We will be with you, as we always have been."

"A shadow moves." The first girl spoke. "If you are to accompany her, now is the time."

"A shadow," he echoed.

"A beast of chaos comes for her. Do you truly desire to keep her safe?"

Caius felt his lips part, then hesitated. Was it about keeping her safe, or trying to ease Yeul's burden? The girls had also witnessed the consequences of their chaos infecting the world, and most of them blamed themselves for driving him to the point of destroying time. If he went with Lightning, aiding her on her quest, perhaps they would know peace, and perhaps his own exhausted spirit would know a little of its own in turn.

So, he gathered all his thoughts, feelings, desires, and lost hopes under a single spoken word: "Yes."

The second girl's eyes narrowed slightly, but she said, "Then, go."

With great reluctance, he decided to follow the briefly branching path of the future laid out before him then.

* * *

><p><em>Thank you for reading, and please let me know what you think! It gives me the motivation to continue this story... which is intended to be a monstrosity close to the length that "Hearts in Chaos" was, by the way.<em>


	5. Into the Deep

_**4 Into the Deep**_

Lightning strode out into the sunshine, finding it a harsh contrast to the darkness behind her, and began walking across the chasm once more. Her chocobo stood at the far side, plucking insects out of the air, but he stopped and twittered when he spotted her. She managed a small smile in return. The further she walked from that place of death and darkness, the lighter her spirits felt.

"Liberator… Lightning, can you still hear me?"

Her steps stuttered until she stopped, and she looked all around at her darkening surroundings. Wisps of chaos flew past her; she looked back in front of her to find them coalescing into the shape of a girl – the one she knew as the girl Noel had known in his time. Though her eyes were heavy, she still managed a warm expression.

Lightning met her gaze, feeling her own expression soften. "You're the voice I heard in the wilderness, aren't you?"

Yeul nodded once. "I had hoped you would hear me. Many had, and thus a legend was born."

"A legend meant to bring me here, right?"

She nodded again. "Through that legend, you discovered answers to questions of your past." For a moment, her voice, which had been rather stern, softened, as though she were in awe. "You also encountered an old friend, your closest ally. You and he have always been closely bound, and now, more so."

Lightning tipped her head. "Of whom do you speak?"

Now the girl smiled, and her eyes weren't as heavy as they had been. "Your old friend and companion, the one who followed you through the fateful Thirteen Days prior to the fall of Cocoon, and the one who stood with you in the never-ending war that was your existence in Valhalla."

Now she was truly confused. "Who is that?"

Yeul raised a hand toward the bird, and an image shimmered beside him – an image of a towering knight in white armor brandishing a silver double-ended blade in one hand and an elaborate shield upon the other – and the bird trilled and hopped once in place, excitedly flapping his wings. The image flickered, vanished with a wink of white light, and Lightning felt a genuine smile curve her lips.

"Even now, you're beside me, Odin – my dear friend." Of its own accord, one hand reached out toward the bird, as if she could touch him from here. Despite her gratitude at seeing him, though, she couldn't feel much else, not even the exuberance she would have normally felt under only slightly different circumstances, and after a moment, sheer bitterness surged into the emotional void. Though her emotions had been a crutch more than anything else in the past, now she desperately wished she could feel them as she used to. "Thank you."

"Lightning, one last thing."

The woman in question looked back at the girl. "What is it?"

"Odin will not be your sole companion. He will not be the only one to help you. I cannot see the future, but I have hope." Yeul's eyes softened. "A shadow comes. Whatever you do in your journey throughout these final days, I know…" And she vanished, trailing a thin whisper that said, "You will do it well."

Lightning watched her return to the temple and saw a spot of darkness flash across the sky.

Odin warbled softly and stamped a foot.

And then she understood, and shouted, "_Odin_!"

A half-instant later, something plummeted out of the sky, all shadowy tendrils and four glowing eyes in a mass of shadow she guessed to be its head, and landed hard on the bridge, swaying back and forth like a predator scoping its prey. Lightning grunted and stumbled back, grateful the beast had at the very least dropped between her and the temple… but well aware of how fast it could move.

As she reached the solid ground, it raised its head, eyes narrowing, and something opened below the eyes, wide, with the ghostly pinkish outlines of fangs flashing in the darkness.

An unearthly roar broke her concentration as it charged.

Purely on instinct, Lightning clambered onto Odin's back and jabbed her heels into his sides. She no longer had the link she shared in Valhalla with him, unable to command him with her mind, but he knew her well enough to put some distance between her and the snarling beast of darkness, blacking out the sky as it moved. It was the same sort of beast that had threatened her last night, exploding unexpectedly out of a chaos emission in the late evening, one she had been unable to vanquish despite her best efforts. It had only vanished once it had finished making a meal out of some passerby, sucking the chaos right out of them and vanishing as abruptly as it had come.

She charged her sword with icy white light and blasted it toward the creature. It howled, taking a stumbling step to the side, head abruptly bowing. The howl reminded her of stone grinding on stone, a horrifying sound that made her skin crawl and Odin screech in obvious concern, if not borderline terror. Again, she blasted the creature, and the white light pierced its rippling shadowy skin in flares of crystal starbursts.

It was on solid ground a few moments later, and some of its tendrils lashed out toward her. Desperate to stay out of its way, she toppled off Odin's back and onto the grass.

Her sword collided with a tendril; the creature screeched and lashed out again.

Odin looked as though he were feeling completely useless, hopping around and pecking at the tendrils as they ignored him in favor of Lightning. When he snagged a tendril in his beak, though, and pulled, the creature screeched again and yanked him clean off his feet. Gallantly, the bird hung on, flapping his wings, letting go just before he hit the ground to soften the impact with an indignant squawk.

When a tendril reached for her, she twisted and clipped it cleanly in half, where it flopped to the grass. A moment later, it sizzled and vanished.

The four pink eyes bored into her; she charged into the flailing tendrils, avoiding two forepaws with ghostly pink claws that came at her, and leapt straight at the head, bringing her sword down in the same movement. Even with part of the tip lopped off by Lumina's magic tricks, it was still an effective weapon, and it punched through the surface of the monster's head with a fleshy _thunk_, causing it to scream piercingly loud. Tendrils came around, wrapped around her midsection, and squeezed until she couldn't breathe while chaos energy leaked from the wound in its skull with an eerie sort of hissing sound.  
>At the very least, the creature couldn't steal her chaos. No, it would just crush the life out of her instead.<p>

Straining, she twisted her sword and lopped off two more tendrils.

Snarling, it opened its mouth, then howled. She gasped for air and swung the blade around, taking a few more tendrils with her. A mass of them suddenly launched themselves at her; she went limp enough to slip through its grip and fell to the ground, rolling with the impact. The beast's forepaw stomped the ground, rattling little stones around her. Odin squawked again.

And then she sensed a too-familiar presence.

The beast was ignoring her, turning to snarl instead at a human-sized figure that had appeared on the bridge. His hands were upheld, fingers gripping the handle of his cruel-looking broadsword where the blade had caught the jaws at just the right angle, holding the head of the creature away from his own.

"_Caius_?" she screamed at him.

He broke his concentration enough to look at her and shout, "Do it!"

Not wanting to bother asking, she sprang up onto the beast, hating the squishy feeling of chaos-flesh underfoot, and slashed her blade right up where the spine would be on a normal animal. As more chaos gushed out into the air and the stink made her wrinkle her nose, Caius suddenly reversed his tactic and shot a wave of pinkish energy from his fingers, knocking the creature over onto its wounded spine.

With a warrior's shout, he lashed out again, more energy colliding with the writhing beast, and she chopped off a few more flapping tendrils before the creature howled, compressed into a dark cloud, and shot into the air, vanishing into the wide blue skies like a ghost. Caius's sword vanished in a flicker of shadow.

Lightning stayed where she was a few moments, down on one knee, hands gripping her sword so tight that she felt the circulation cutting off slightly from the pressure against her bones. Gaping at the Guardian before her, she felt a sense of relief, confusion, and bitterness. What was he _doing_ here? Had he taken her up on her offer, or just come out here in some halfhearted attempt at playing "hero"?

"What's going on?" she demanded upon catching her breath.

Caius looked at her, expression cold and hard; she subconsciously drew back from it. "That was a beast conjured from the depths of the chaos." He moved toward her; she rose to her feet. "Before you ask, it was neither conjured nor directed by either myself or Yeul. It is a force of the chaos's energy field."

Lightning rose to her feet, staring warily at him. Odin twittered and fluffed out his feathers, no doubt remembering what the man had done to _him_ as well.

"So," she said, a little less harshly, "did you change your mind?"

His eyes bored into hers. "Indeed I have."

She blinked. Odin cooed softly.

"You have what you wanted." He stopped moving only when he stood about three feet away. Lightning battled the hundred thousand instincts that screamed at her to prepare to defend herself for the moment he pulled out that sword and attacked her, holding her ground against that which had kept her alive all this time. "Now, shall we be moving?"

She snapped out of her trance. "You'll help me."

Irritation seeped into his words when he said, "You are wasting time _again_."

The instincts died away as she gave a sigh of resignation. "We are going into the Wildlands," she told him. "Hope told me there– oh, Hope." She flicked on her headset. "Hey. Hope, you still there?"

"Lightning!" He sounded so relieved that she immediately felt bad for abandoning him so long. "You're alive!"

"Sorry," she told him. "I couldn't hear you in the temple."

"So you just turned it off?"

"I'm really sorry, Hope," she murmured. "All I heard was static and bits of words."

"No, that's…" She heard him sigh. "That's fine. I'm just glad to know you're safe. You need to stop worrying me like that and be more careful down there."

Her gaze flicked to Caius's. "I'll be fine," she said.

"I see." The boy's voice suddenly sounded thoughtful. "Light, there appears to be a strong chaos reading very close to you. Please, keep your distance from it." He snorted softly. "We don't need you to go stumbling into another nest of chaos beasts like you did last night."

"It's alright, Hope," she said. "I'll keep an eye on it, I promise."

He noticeably hesitated. "Are you sure?"

"Yes, I'm sure. I'll be fine."

With a resigned sigh, he cut the line. Lightning switched off the vox functionality and went back to gazing at Caius, feeling unnerved beneath his intense stare. There was something completely new in those eyes that had certainly not been there before, when they had waged war in Valhalla. She didn't like it, but didn't feel a need to dig into it and find out what it was. Caius was to be her ally, but despite him potentially behaving like a servant, she could never forget how powerful he was. He could kill her, easily, and she knew it.

Whether he would use that power, though, she didn't know.

"Where to, then?" he said to her.

Lightning clucked her tongue and whispered her steed's name; he came to her, briefly slinging his head around to give the dark warrior a sidelong glance. "Hope told me he may have found a village hidden away in the wilderness that belongs to a small community of moogles," she said as she swung up onto the bird's back. "If that's the case, then Serah's little companion may yet be alive. I know where it should be."

"And you plan to get through the woods immediately?"

Lightning sighed. "I do, yes."

When Caius said nothing more, she gently squeezed her steed and allowed him to trot away from the shadow of the temple, leaving the warrior behind. As she passed out of sight of him, she shook her head, feeling a twinge of anger well up inside her. The warrior who had decided to become her ally was one who had not only tried to kill _her_, but had destroyed the world, killed her sister, and caused the chaos to invade the hearts of the survivors. Perhaps he had done far more during his time here, manipulating the chaos to suit his needs. He had gotten what he wanted, and no matter what he said in the temple, she had trouble believing the chaos wouldn't–

And then he was in front of her, causing Odin to shriek. Lightning gritted her teeth. "If you're going with me, you can't do things like that," she said through them.

Caius moved aside enough to stand at Odin's shoulder. "It is difficult passage."

"I've seen how the wilderness is," she told him, urging Odin on again. The bird chirped quietly, but did as he was asked. "When the going gets too rough, I'll just have to walk. Where there's a will, there's always a way."

There was a pause. "Do you believe Mog to be in the village?"

For a moment, she wondered how on Pulse he knew the name of her sister's little companion, but pushed that aside the moment she remembered his time-gazing in Valhalla. "If he's there, then he makes another I have to save from the darkness," she told him, uneasily looking over her shoulder at him. He still stood where she had left him, his face and body completely and unnervingly unreadable. Her eyes narrowed. "If you plan to go with me, then walk ahead of me. I'm not turning my back on you."

Odin seemed to share her thoughts, chirping softly and looking carefully at the dark warrior.

Caius said nothing, but did as she asked. Once he was a few steps ahead of her, she urged her mount on again and followed him through the underbrush, feeling the faint echo of fear at the sight of his familiar form making its way ahead of her, waiting for the moment he turned on her.

* * *

><p>The sensation of watching the timeline of the world below from a place where time did not exist was strange; time both passed and remained still here, similar to what he had come to understand of Valhalla from his studies, though as far as he could tell events did not occur out of order here. It had been nearly two hundred years he had waited for the return of the one who would free the exhausted individuals awaiting the world's end. At the same time, it hadn't felt even as long as that, and he wondered why that was.<p>

His eyes wandered to the map, watching Lightning make her way across the wilderness toward what he suspected was a small moogle village. If she moved quickly enough, she could sweep through the village and return to Luxerion by rail with enough time to spare to intervene in the Order's execution.

He wondered why she pursued that spot of chaos he'd picked up.

He could trust her to watch it, but still…

At his sides, his fingers clenched and unclenched, echoes of memory trickling through his blood. To see her so close to something that _could_ be one of those deadly chaos beasts greatly concerned him. She _had_ to succeed in her task, or else the world was lost and the chaos would be allowed to touch any world it pleased. If she lost even a day, that was another harvest of souls that could not–

Hope blinked, staring blankly for a moment. That could not what? The term on his tongue nearly came to his lips, but just as quickly as it had come, it died away.

"Light," he murmured, "please be careful, and move swiftly. Keep your eyes front. I'll be right here."

He exhaled. She was all that mattered, in the end.

"I'll watch the rear."

His voice sounded strange in the silent void around him, broken only by the chirp of his computer terminal every so often, telling him what it had found in the long stretches of silence. Time both ticked by and stood still; she both moved below his feet and had barely left the Ark. It would be unnerving, if he hadn't already been so comfortable with how things operated here. It was though he belonged, right here, and that was fine.

All the same, he didn't like being separated from her, and the gnawing anxiety created by the shadow she pursued only made that sinking feeling worse.

His heart aching a little, he cast a look around the Ark. After fighting across time and space to find her, after being drawn away by the illusion that had also driven him mad, after struggling to find a way to help those still lost to time… he couldn't give up now. And most of all, he could _not_ give _her_ up. When this was over, she would be–

And just like that, the word slipped from his tongue.

She would be… what?

If he'd had the ability, he would have felt a surge of anger at having pieces of reality stolen from his tongue before they could break free, but instead he felt hollow, and around that void danced blissful contentment, determination, and the fringes of a creeping shadow that did not concern him in the least.

* * *

><p>As the sun tracked overhead like an enormous hourglass, taunting her with the passage of time, she allowed her mount to trace the best path toward the ever-growing chaos emission deep within the forest. The rainclouds that had been approaching all day were nearly here; the scent of wet soil seeped into her nostrils, thick as a blanket. Every so often she snuck a glance at Caius, who always remained ahead of her, picking a path aboveground to move unless he crossed a clearing, climbing swiftly through trees and across rocks.<p>

The forest thickened the further in they went, and soon Odin had to pick his way, slowing almost to a crawl at times except for bursts of speed through clearings. It was when they reached a stream, across which the forest developed a sudden carpet of dense undergrowth, and she heard the hunting calls of beasts in the woods, that she decided it was time to move forward on foot and dismounted.

"Stay close," she murmured, gently stroking her steed's feathered forehead. She splashed into the stream, picking her way along rocks only partially submerged.

On the opposite side of the stream, once she stood on dry but soft ground, she stopped, looking around to find that Caius had disappeared, and that she could not sense his presence. A sense of unsettlement came over her; a hand came up to her blade, lifting it off her back, before it moved to hang at her side in a casual battle stance she held before moving cautiously forward, toward the trees. Odin stayed close behind her, silent.

Birds made a racket in the canopy; she passed through a stand of grass, gently parting it with her blade, eyes roving over the path that lay ahead of her. At the same time, every sense stayed on high alert, watching for any flicker of movement – to indicate a monster, or Caius.

He did not give her the impression of being a threat, she had to admit. Not at all. And _that_ was what unsettled her the most. Caius had never been a master of hiding his feelings – quite the opposite; he had always worn them on his sleeve in Valhalla, never bothering with a façade – and yet it seemed he had developed an impenetrable armor that shielded his heart from her powerful senses, until all she sensed was random chaos. He claimed to be aiding her, but while not displaying a threatening demeanor, it _had_ been rather callous. That was fine with her, but it did nothing to shake the feeling that all he was doing was waiting for the right time to betray her.

After all, hadn't he gotten what he wanted?

And yet… with that being said, she still had to wonder. He had also admitted his pain, though in a roundabout way. Was he trying to mislead her, or was there more to what was happening?

"Having fun yet?"

Lightning glanced at Lumina, who had suddenly appeared ahead of her, leaning against a tree. Her lips curved in a mischievous and too-familiar smirk; she frowned at the sight of it. The girl appeared and disappeared at will and seemed to demonstrate an obnoxious ability to be one step ahead of her at all times. How did she do it? And how did the other former l'Cie know her so well? It made her skin prickle with anxiety, the thought of ever discovering what might have happened in the years leading up to her awakening.

And what about the "imposter" Sazh had mentioned, the one responsible for Hope's disappearance? The boy never spoke of the five centuries that had passed, only touching briefly on how he had some trouble remembering all of it and insisting how much it didn't matter what all had happened.

"I don't have time to deal with you. I'm busy." In no mood for idle chatter, the woman overcame her instinct to keep searching the vegetation for the Guardian and made her way up the earthy bank to the tree line. Odin followed close behind her. As she passed Lumina, she pointedly gave the girl the broad side of her shoulder, looking the other way, picking a path through the underbrush. With the softest of wind-like sighs, Lumina vanished again, only to appear right in her path, hands behind her back, still smirking.

"Where did Caius go, huh?" she said, and didn't wait for an answer before saying, "You might want to keep a better eye on him. He might not be much of a threat, but that doesn't mean he's stable. You let him slip too much–"

Lightning shouldered past, shoving the girl aside.

Lumina grunted as she stumbled. "–and you won't have him helping you anymore," she finished flatly. Lightning heard her wink out of existence behind her.

Only once she exited the underbrush and stamped into a small clearing slashed in the trees, thick with the scent of wet earth and soggy bark, that she finally halted and looked all around for her… what was he to her? Not exactly a "companion", not in the traditional sense. Not an "acquaintance"; for all their time in Valhalla, she barely knew him. And not a "comrade", because he had only fought at her side once so far.

"Where did you go?" she said to herself.

And suddenly he was _there_, a few feet away, appearing out of a wisp of shadow and looking right at her. "Not far," he said, and sounded vaguely amused. Lightning instinctively shied back, creating a bit more distance between them as she locked her eyes with his. What an unnerving sight, she decided, seeing his hard, dark eyes staying on her no matter how she moved, his heart completely unreadable, as though he were a corpse.

She shivered. In a way, he _was_ a corpse.

Briefly, her mind wandered, eyes traveling over his hard, powerful body, remembering with an ache in her belly how easily he could thrash her when he really put his mind to it. He may have pledged his reluctant allegiance to her, but how could she know that would hold up?

"If you're going with me, you can't just _disappear_, either." She bit the words; each syllable came at him like venomous snakes. "Stay in my line of sight."

His gaze hardened. "_You_ were the one that requested my presence, Liberator." The amusement was gone, and in its place was the bitter taste of mild hostility. Lightning felt her lips tighten against her teeth and her fingertips twitch. He might be fast, but she could live up to her name. Her crimson sword could come off her back with the quickness of her namesake's strike, and she would do it in a thought.

The thought crossed her mind that he was somehow taunting her, but that thought vanished the moment she really looked into his eyes. Though his heart was closed to her and his true feelings unreadable, she could at least tell that he wasn't playing around in the least.

Her boots struck the moss underfoot hard enough to make muted thumping sounds; her sword came off her back and landed on his throat, the golden edge shimmering in the dappled sunlight – a harsh contrast to the shadows that seemed to cling to every hollow of his skin. Caius's eyes narrowed, but his eyebrows came up, slightly; she hid the smirk that nearly slipped free. So, he could still be caught off guard.

"Listen carefully to me, Caius Ballad," she said, again biting the words, taking care to make his name sound like the nastiest insult she could think of. "You're here because Lumina had a point and because I need your power. You're not here to make friends or help me kick the bucket. I'd rather you didn't return to the temple, but _only_ because _you_ vanquished a beast of chaos where I could not. Get it?"

His lips quirked toward the corner of his mouth. "I understand this situation far better than you ever could."

She pressed the metal into his skin a little. "I told you not to patronize me."

His dark eyes fixed on hers, and he said nothing.

This little standoff went on for a few heartbeats, her sky blue eyes locked tight with his. Odin shifted his weight and twittered softly. Songbirds made a racket some distance away. There was no breeze to stir the trees. Through all of this silence, she never took her eyes from his. It was a battle of wills, and she _dared_ him to remain, _dared_ him to test her patience, _dared_ him to try and crush her will this time, for it was a will of steel, forged by the radiant deity that had called her to its benevolent service.

An understanding seemed to pass between them, and to her faint surprise, his eyes moved from hers, and only then did she withdraw her blade, lowering it to her side. This close to him, she had to tilt her chin up to look at him, but even so, his gaze had fallen off to the side, fixed instead on some spot that didn't concern her.

"Better," she said, softening her tone. "Now, let's go."

He looked at her again, lips pressed into a firm line, but turned away and walked through the brush. Insects flew through the air; flashes of color drew her eye to butterflies flitting from flower to flower. The further they went into the forest, the more fascinating her surroundings became, and soon the tree trunks were covered in a thick green moss and wrapped in flowering vines as thick as her wrist. The heady scent of flowers and soggy earth filled her nostrils. She inhaled it, and it reminded her of Gran Pulse as it was.

After some minutes of walking, she pulled the tiny computer Hope had given her out of her belt and flicked it on. It gave the distance to the swirl of chaos Hope had spoken of as only half a mile, straight ahead.

"Half a mile," she murmured, putting the device away.

This time, Caius said nothing at all. Lightning watched him push through ferns and break branches reaching across their path, feeling her muscles tighten with each sudden movement he made. She chastised herself each time, telling her body _he's not going to do it this time_, but the memory of broken bones and bruised tendons and painful landings refused to leave. No matter how she controlled her mind, her body acted on instinct.

_Move on instinct_, she had said, long ago – a _lifetime_ ago – and now the words came back to haunt her, taking control of her body from her.

She gave a silent snarl at that realization. Her disciplined mind meant nothing when her body still operated under the belief that everything around her had the capability of killing her. After Cocoon's first fall, she had allowed herself to feel safe, though unsettled by the realization that there were no more wars to fight, and far too soon afterward, that feeling had been taken from her. Perhaps it was all nothing more than an artifact of a bygone age.

When this was all over and she set foot in the new world, she could relax for real.

Until then, she would just have to work harder.

"Stop." Caius's voice slashed into her thoughts with an ease she briefly hated, yanking her from her reminiscing and bringing her to reality, where she found herself standing before a mass of vines of varying colors, hung with flowers as big as her palm. "I believe we have arrived," he continued, and looked expectantly at her.

Lightning lifted the sword off her back, the tip easing into the chaotic greenery. About a third of the way in, she used it to push the vines aside and caught a glimpse of violet light beyond. "Looks that way." She nodded, looking sidelong at him. "After you."

Caius didn't return her nod, only staring at her for a moment before pushing through the vines into the valley formed from vegetation and stone beyond.

* * *

><p><em>So, a couple of quick notes here. First note: the chaos beasts were conceived by myself way back when the game was first announced, about the time when the developers started discussing the Cie (translated as "chaos infusions" in the final game) and ultra-powerful beasts that came from the Cie (now known to be regular monsters with higher stats). I decided to keep the concept for this story. Their appearance most closely resembles clouds of chaos with partial form, and their current design is influenced by the alien spirits of FINAL FANTASY: THE SPIRITS WITHIN and the Mimics from the film EDGE OF TOMORROW.<em>

_Other note: the title of the chapter comes from an episode of ONCE UPON A TIME. For some reason, it really stuck in my mind and I didn't come up with another in time for this chapter's release, so... there we are! __Thanks for reading, and do let me know what you think!_


	6. Light in the Dark

_**5 Light in the Dark**_

Caius stepped into the cool darkness beyond the vines, his movements causing puffs of flowery perfume to surround him on all sides. With one elbow, he hoisted a heavy, thickly-flowered limb out of his way, stepped over a root, and ducked under a glowing red flower being visited by a pair of pink butterflies. A few steps later, he found himself out in a clearing. The Liberator came through the brush behind him, making soft sounds as she dodged branches.

"They must be somewhere ahead. Am I correct?"

He felt something apply pressure to his back and scowled at the sensation. She knew how to make it clear she didn't want any nonsense from him. "You are. Keep moving."

Feeling bitterness well up at the hard and cold nature of her tone, he kept moving forward, hearing her feathered companion also come tromping through the brush like a great fluffy menace. Part of him felt amusement at the idea of the great and powerful Odin being reduced to a chocobo. Bringing his mind back to that briefly chased away the aching void gnawing at what was left of his heart.

The racket of songbirds had been reduced to the thrum of insects and cooing of doves. In the darkness all around, he saw more of the great red flowers with their golden tendrils extended and waving about. Butterflies flitted all around in flickers of pink. He sensed her begin to calm; he risked a look back to see that her gaze had drifted to take in her surroundings, her expression faintly colored with wonder. That sensation also reached him, sweeping through his limbs, for he had not seen Gran Pulse's beauty in so many centuries and felt pleased to know that even the chaos had not been able to dull it.

And it was good, too, because the last time he had been surrounded by such magnificence, he had not been in nearly the right mind to appreciate any of it.

The further they walked, the more dreamlike the landscape became, the shadows around him thick with flowers, the canopy overhead sparkling with the light of golden fireflies winking silently in the dark, and ahead, a violet glow began to spread, steadily, growing brighter and brighter as they approached. He thought he heard the tinkling of a moogle's bobble somewhere off to his right, but when he looked, there was nothing he could see, so he reached out with his senses instead, using the chaos prickling all around him to extend himself, seeing how far he could go into the forest. The dense underbrush was filled with pockets of void, where no chaos could touch at all, but he _did_ find a few creatures in the darkness. Maybe they were moogles.

"There's so many trees," he heard the Liberator mutter. "Good thing there's so many glowing things around here, or I'd be blind." She sighed softly. "I can't even tell it's daytime."

He looked up into the canopy. Sure enough, it was so thick that absolutely no sunlight came through.

"Hey, what–" He heard her grunt softly. "That must be it."

He peered into the darkness at a soothing pinkish-violet glow about twenty feet into the thick brush. A few steps brought him close enough to realize there was a clearing beyond and about four squat, pinkish-purple houses that looked an awful lot like squat moogles. Behind him, he heard his companion step over a root, kick a rock, and then go climbing over another obstacle before she nudged him aside with the broken end of her sword. Caius resisted the urge to make a show of shoving it away, instead obediently moving toward the rock cliff.

His shoulder scraped the porous face; the Liberator moved past him toward a natural staircase surrounded by flowers, taking swift steps up toward the glowing houses.

He hesitated, then followed her, keeping pace, occasionally leaning slightly to the left to get around branches heavy with flowers. It was the first time since leaving the temple grounds that she had walked in front of him, and he had no desire to make it the last, keeping a respectful distance behind her but never straying far. It would be hard to lose him, anyway, as the surreal glow from all around lit him up like a star.

The woman approached a pair of small, rotund, white-furred creatures, dropping pink sparkles as though it were, as the saying went, "going out of style". One of them, the rounder of the two, waved its staff, using it to gesture about, making the soft hooting sounds its species was known for.

"Are you busy?" She stood behind them, a hand on her hip; he couldn't help but trace the line formed by her arm and the muscle it sported and frowned slightly.

"Very busy, kupo!" The round creature waved the staff at her behind its shoulder without even looking.

The woman tilted her head. "Must be important," she muttered.

The pair went on hooting and burbling to each other; Caius moved closer, mostly to get away from the powerful and vaguely citrusy scent of the blue flowers to his left, and stopped a few feet behind the Liberator, keeping one eye on her and the other on the thickly shadowed woods that surrounded them.

He heard her snort softly, but it seemed to bear a twinge of amusement. "You can't look away for two seconds?"

The first moogle abruptly faced her. "No, no, kupo, very–"

It gave a strange little gasping sound and seemed to freeze in midair. For a few seconds, there was silence but for the twitter of insects. Caius felt himself instinctively bristle beneath the armor, though he checked himself. There was no reason to be concerned about a mere little moogle.

"_It's her_!" The creature cried out with a shrill voice that hardly matched its round appearance. As the sound died off into the trees, the echo swallowed by the glowing vegetation, suddenly there were a dozen more of the strange little beings, appearing like fireflies at dusk, all making bemused hooting sounds that quickly turned ecstatic. There were a hundred different cries of the woman's title.

It was then her eyes widened almost comically.

"Now, no, wait, don't be–" Her demands ended in a surprised grunt as every moogle in the village flung itself at her, covering her in a coat of wriggling white fur. Her arms flailing somewhere in that white mass, and she took a quick step back; her heel snagged on a branch and she fell hard onto her rear end with a _thud_. The moogles kept on making their hooting sounds; she growled somewhere beneath it all, but he caught a softening of her expression, lips just barely forming a half-smile, as she raised a hand and patted one of them on the head.

It was then he realized that this was the closest to a real smile he had ever seen out of her that wasn't anywhere near a smirk, and it was all because of these small beings.

Suddenly hesitant, Caius took a step back, closer to the shadows, into the glow of the red flowers, as bright and fierce as fire. Moogles lived in another realm. They never ventured to the world of humans. For them to be here–

Bitterness welled up, but he clamped it down without a thought.

"We're so glad you came!" one of them – female, from the voice – chattered excitedly into the rose-haired woman's ear. Her bobble gave off waves of sparkling energy to punctuate her words. "There's monsters in the woods that try to eat us poor moogles, kupo! Don't let them do it, kupo!"

The woman brought her legs under her, heaving herself to her feet. "What monsters?"

"Tree-monsters, kupo." The rotund one spoke, sounding very authoritative. "They come to munch-munch us." He ended his sentence with a very nonthreatening growl.

The Liberator nodded once. Her hair sifted across her shoulder, catching the sheen of the flowers, making it seem as though she glowed with fire. Caius glanced around, thinking he had a clear shot out if he wanted to leave. No one was looking at him, and he suspected the moogles hadn't even noticed his presence. They were transfixed by the Liberator with the hair of fire – he could go back to the temple, right now, and…

Against his will, he felt his brow furrow.

And what? Turn his back on her _now_, when she had already reluctantly requested his help? Now, when he had been able to banish a being of pure chaos where she could only hold her own? _Now_, when Yeul suffered in her cage of darkness, when her soul could be lifted and brightened by the work he wrought here? No, he realized, feeling his determination harden, he could not return just yet. Tonight, he would go back and be with them. For now, he had to stay, had to take the punishment, because he had earned it, and he deserved it.

When these days were over, he would be with them forever, anyway.

"–the ruckus, kupo?"

Caius snapped out of his thoughts to see a new face appear from the shadows. The frown deepened as a prick of familiarity tingled in his blood at the sight.

The rose-haired woman turned, hair shimmering, armor shining a thousand colorful hues, with a rustle of the robes at her sides, her eyes turned upon the newcomer. The white-furred creature left a trail of pinkish sparkles in its wake as it approached her. It was thinner than the others, but bore the beginnings of what could easily become a pudge in its belly, and wore a shimmering gold and crimson crown on its head. The other moogles, at the sight, quieted at once and huddled together. One of them whispered "it's the leader"; for a moment afterward, they hooted in hushed voices, all of them facing the newcomer, the shower of sparkles greatly lessened.

The woman remained where she was, shoulders back and spine straight as a pillar of stone, saying nothing, hair still shimmering, but the way the flowers lit her made her look as if she were wreathed in flame.

Odin fluffed out his feathers and cooed.

The newcomer moogle stopped, and suddenly he felt a surge of recognition. The pang of bitterness returned; again he grabbed it and shoved it back down to whence it had come.

"Liberator?" the moogle squawked. "L– Lib– Li– _Lightning_?"

The creature gave a cry, and he fled the way he had come. Caius remained rooted to the spot, though the woman went after the moogle, despite the pang of guilt that demanded he go after her. After all, was he not here to help her? Suppose she found trouble in the darkness– but no, he told himself, silencing those thoughts immediately. The only trouble she would find here would be him, as anything else she could handle without a problem.

The woman extended a hand, raking her fingers through the air, but they closed around emptiness as he vanished into the shadows. "_Mog_!"

The woman raced after the moogle, half-springing over a tree root jutting out of the earth. There were a few moments where he remained where he was before some undeniable force – probably guilt, not at all helped by his own indomitable stubbornness – pulled him along an invisible path she had laid with her own two feet, and he followed her, unheeded, but took great care to stay a few steps behind, cloaked in darkness.

* * *

><p>Lightning approached the cowering, whimpering creature before her with slow, careful steps, deafened by the thick moss and glowing green lichen underfoot. She felt a need to be cautious, to not scare him, and a complete lack of desire to move any faster than she needed to. She kept her hands open, fingers relaxed, palms out, painting as sure a picture of her nonthreatening presence as she could under the circumstances. Mog – her dear sister's companion, the brave and determined creature, whose heart had always been strong even as he were crushed underfoot – cowered in the corner near a tree wrapped in bell-shaped white flowers than made soft sounds on the breeze.<p>

"Mog," she tried again, as gently as she could manage, and felt the shell of her heart go out to him. "Mog, please, look at me. I'm not–" She hesitated and bit her lip. "Mog, please."

"M– Mog?" His fur glowed in the light of the flowers as he retreated further, pressing himself into the plants.

Trusting her instincts, she stopped a few steps away. "Yeah, Mog. I know it's you."

"N– no, you've got the wrong moogle, kupo."

Lightning felt something squeeze her insides at the sound of his voice. It sounded so _meek_, and _small_, and she had to wonder what could possibly have happened to break him so. "Hey, Mog, it's– it's okay," she murmured. "I know I look scary with all this armor, but… I won't hurt you. I'm not here to– to _do_ anything." For a moment, her hand twitched, as though itching to smooth the sharp edges on her armor. She hadn't chosen the aesthetic, and if she had, she never would have gone with something so sinister. "Please look at me?"

Hearing something rustle behind her, she glanced over her shoulder. The warm feelings chilled as she felt her face harden at the sight of the man in black. The flowers didn't light his face well, leaving most of it in shadow.

Breathing deep as she returned her gaze to Mog, she tried again. "Mog, look at me."

The moogle shook his head. "Mog can't do it, kupo."

"You can't do what? Turn around?"

"No… no, Mog can't– I can't–" The pregnant pause made her skin prickle. "I can't look Lightning in the eye, kupo. Mog failed the mission he'd been sent out on. I _failed_ to protect Serah, kupo." Lightning heard his already thin voice crack slightly at the mention of her precious sister's name; she blinked at the pang of hurt that surged through her blood and made her chest tighten.

At the same time, a fresh wellspring of anger, sour as bile, came to her as she remembered Caius's presence.

The dark warrior had done _all_ of this.

"No, Mog, it wasn't your fault." _It was Caius's fault, he killed Serah_, she wanted to say, but held the words back, thinking it the wrong time to speak them. "It was partly mine, for sending her out on the journey to begin with, but by no means was it _your_ fault." Pause; she stepped forward, extending a hand. "Mog, for my sake, please just look at me. Come on," she added in a smaller voice when he still refused. "Please? Mog…" An unexpected pinprick of feeling flitted through the void, startling her, but she hung onto it, savored it.

The silence was broken by the pattering of rain, heavily muffled, somewhere on the canopy's sky-facing side, and the continued buzz of insects. The air seemed to grow thicker, humid, and her skin prickled. There was electricity in the air. A storm approached, probably the one she'd spotted before going into the forest.

At last, Mog turned, easing away from the vegetation. His tiny paws fiddled with one another. "Mog is so sorry, kupo." His voice was tiny and hesitant. "Mog couldn't protect Lightning's sister."

"_No_." Lightning spoke forcefully and took a step forward. "Mog, look at me. _Look at me_, please."

He did, tipping his head back, and waited.

"You didn't get Serah killed. It wasn't your fault, at _all_. Don't you dare start thinking it is. _You_ were in no way even partly responsible for her death. I was, far more than you were." The words came tumbling out in a rush, and she felt her chest tighten slightly. "You protected her and cared about her. It's because of you and Noel that she made it as far as did, and she's never gonna blame you, got that?"

"Wh… what do you mean, kupo? Serah's gone, kupo. She's never coming back."

"Actually, she is. I'm seeing to it personally."

Mog gave a quiet "kupo-kupo" and raised his bobble a little. "Serah's alive?"

"Not… exactly." Lightning frowned, running a hand through her hair as she hesitated. "But she will be, as long as I keep doing what Bhunivelze asks. If I save enough people, once this world ends, she'll be returned to us, and the sorrows of the past can finally be undone." Something stabbed her heart – or, at least, the void it had left behind long ago – as her mind flicked to the man standing somewhere behind her. "C'mon. I need you to look after all of these moogles, and I'll need you there when Serah comes."

Mog's wings beat faster, pink sparkles raining from his twinkling bobble.

"She'll need a friendly face besides mine and… Snow's." _If I can save him in time_. "So, can you do that? Promise me you'll be there to greet her. Okay?"_ In case I can't be_.

There was a moment of silence as Lightning gazed expectantly at him, waiting to see what he would do. If Mog gave in to his sorrow, his imagined guilt, and his acquired weakness of heart, the little one would be lost, and she would only have the ability to stand idly by, watching as he suffered and the chaos overtook him at the end of the world. No, he _had_ to find what he had been and all that he could be. This was one being in particular who could not be lost – she remembered him, small and weak, his white fur so starkly contrasted against Valhalla's gloom, as he joined her in a ferocious game of rock-paper-scissors, knowing full well he couldn't beat her in strength, so he counted on his will instead to overcome her.

He lost, but she had smiled and chosen to bend the rules of Valhalla, assigning him an important duty: to be Serah's sword as Noel was her shield.

Even then, she had known the most likely finale. She had hoped desperately for a peaceful resolution, that Serah and Noel would be able to fix the timeline, but even before reality's bitterness and Caius's hateful eyes etched the truth on her heart, she had known she would never go home again. She had _known_ that as long as Caius was alive, she had to remain in Valhalla to protect Etro and the entire timeline. Into the tiny, silly-looking creature, she had poured all of her hopes and wishes, knowing that since he could not return to his fellow moogles, if Serah and Noel succeeded, he could stay with her in her sister's stead as Lightning continued the endless fight.

No, Mog had to live. This strange little creature with his silly wings and absurd bobble _had_ to live, because he had always been so much more than a simple companion.

He had been with Serah in her last moments, as she had taken her dying breath, as Noel had cried over her lifeless body. If _anyone_ did not deserve to be swallowed up by the chaos, never to know happiness again, it was this little one and his innocence that defied the shadows in the approaching dusk.

"Then…" Mog sounded stronger now. "…you forgive me, kupo?"

"There's nothing to forgive, Mog."

He hesitated again, and his head turned slightly. Lightning felt her skin prickle, knowing that he had seen the man cloaked in darkness, whose burden of chaos felt oppressive, weighing on her, something she could neither dismiss nor ignore. Did even those incapable of sensing chaos as she did feel the weight of his presence and power?

The little one said, "Kupo?"

Lightning looked over her shoulder to see Caius looking back at her, face unreadable. "He won't hurt you anymore," she assured Mog, bringing her gaze back to him. "He's with me now."

She could tell from how his paws fiddled together and a ripple passed through his snowy fur that he didn't like the man's presence, or at least was put under a strong sense of unease by it. "Mog understands. Mog will… he will be there for Serah, kupo, and he'll be the best he can be." There was a moment of obvious hesitation before he abruptly flew forward, squeaking out her name, and she raised a hand on instinct, stopping him at arm's length with her palm on his forehead, as he grumbled and jabbered in midair.

"That's better," she said, and managed the tiniest of smiles. It couldn't be imbued with the feeling she desperately wished to provide, but it could look real, and that was enough for her. "That's more like the Mog I know. Now, stay and watch over the other moogles," she added, giving a gentle push to emphasize her point, and turned away. "I have to keep moving for now, but I might come back later. Will you be alright?"

"Uh… um…" She heard his bobble make a tinkling sound. "Mog will be fine! I'll protect this village like– like it was–" He made a hooting sound – moogle laughter? "Like it was a big, shiny pile of gil… oh! And the best fruits and greens in the whole forest! The Liberator has Mog's promise!"

Lightning felt her smile become slightly more genuine. "I'm glad to hear it, Mog."

That smile, however, vanished the moment she laid eyes on the dark warrior standing near the flowers, the light edging his features in a hard red light, reflecting faintly in his eyes. Casting her gaze away from his, she looked at the ground instead, watching the green lichen briefly glow brighter each time her boot met the moss, and picked her way over the roots standing above the earth.

"Will Lightning be okay out there?"

She stopped midstride and looked back over her shoulder at Mog. Caius stood maybe a foot from her left shoulder, looking at her, expectant, like a servant waiting respectfully in his corner to be called upon, while Mog came out of the shadows and floated toward the squat houses. Unsure how to respond, she merely gave a small shrug and a tiny flash of a smile, and returned to Odin to bury her fingers in his feathers. The warmth radiating from the skin below calmed her nerves; she briefly rested her head on her comrade's strong shoulder.

The patter of rain filled the silence; she looked back at Caius, who still hadn't moved. "We're leaving," she told him firmly, and jerked her head. "Take point."

The armor reflected the flowers' light in various shades and hues, dull or shiny, highlighting every nick and dent in the ancient metal, as he obeyed, moving to blaze the trail ahead of her. Lightning let her gaze rove over his back, taking note of the strange writing across his shoulders – writing she had always known was there, but had never really been able to _look_ at before – and felt her brow knit as she tried to puzzle it out. It was in the ancient alphabet she had seen in Valhalla, a script she had seen in various places in Poltae near the temple.

Perhaps the professor there could translate it.

Maybe, though, it wasn't worth it, especially when her curiosity just wasn't high enough.

"Where are we to go now?" Caius's voice pierced her thoughts, making her wonder just how he managed to pull her away from her wonderings so easily, returning her gaze to him. He still moved forward, never looking back, his stride stout and purposeful.

"I need to burn some time before tonight," she said. "The Heretics in Luxerion are going to attempt to make another sacrifice in the wee hours. For now…" Letting herself trail off, she thought about where to go next. She had no news to bring to Sazh as of yet. Snow's palace probably wasn't on high alert anymore, but showing her face in Yusnaan wasn't the brightest idea. She had made her rounds at Canopus Farms, investigated both ends of the expanse that made up the Wildlands, and already run into Noel in Luxerion.

That left the desert that made up the world's western continent, but Lightning balked at the idea of dealing with the hot sands and bitter heat. No, it was better to go at night, where the air cooled and the sands stopped blowing, to see what it was that drew so many to its empty expanse.

What wandered into her mind was the "imposter" Sazh had mentioned. Hope had never brought her up, but the fact that Sazh had shown such distrust at first told her all she needed to know.

Whatever the "imposter" was, it was worth investigating.

And the Order might know something.

"There's something I need to find out," she said at last. "We're going to Luxerion. You might like it there," she added dryly. "It's gloomy and full of chaos, kind of like that temple." She pretended not to see the stiffening of his shoulders as she spoke. "The Order would probably like you. It's because you killed Etro that their god woke up and started building a new world. The same one that I serve now, in fact."

"Is he, now." It certainly wasn't a question.

"Yes. I serve Bhunivelze, and I'm here because he woke me out of the crystal. I might not like the Order all much, but they seem peaceful enough, and they might have some understanding of some… things that are going on in this world." She hesitated, then said, "I also have unfinished business with Noel."

Caius suddenly faced her, stopping dead. "Noel is here?"

Suddenly uneasy all over again, she gripped Odin's feathers while he tittered in his throat. There was something fierce in Caius's eyes now, something that made her skin crawl and hair stand on end. Maybe it wasn't a good idea having him around, she started to think, but kicked those thoughts aside just as fast as they had come. Luxerion had been chaos central during the previous night. She would need his skill to keep more people from being devoured by the beasts that prowled the streets.

"He's in Luxerion, yes, and he's a little bit… well…" Feeling an emotion flash through her eyes, surprising her, but only for a moment, she raised her chin slightly. "He's different now. There's a heavy burden on his heart, and– hey," she said as he turned his back to her. "What, losing your spine _now_, Ballad?"

He whirled on her fast enough to make her gasp and stumble back, hand instinctively fumbling for her sword.

"And do not patronize _me_," he snarled at her.

Lightning swallowed, forcing her body and mind to obey. She still had to force her hand back to her side. "Never mind, then," she muttered, feeling her brow knit.

He waited a moment longer, the anger still roiling in his dark eyes, before it died out and he turned away, back as straight as an arrow and shoulders squared. Lightning gritted her teeth, feeling her lips peel back for a moment, as she questioned the logic of bringing this monster with her. It _had_ been Lumina's idea, after all. Still, it only took her remembering how he had dispatched the chaos beast to continue onward.

It wasn't worth losing more human lives to the monsters just because she decided she didn't like his pettiness.

After all, it wasn't as though he would suddenly turn on her.

She sighed quietly. No, he would just frighten and anger her instead, and make her wish the benefit to having him around didn't outweigh the bitter memories the sight of him still brought back to her.

* * *

><p><em>I apologize for how long it took to get this out! I've been playing through "Lightning Returns" and am nearly finished, and it's such a time sink that I kind of neglected this story. Anyway, please let me know what you think, and I hope you enjoy! I'll do my best to get the next chapter out within 2-3 weeks.<em>


	7. The Age of Chaos

_**6 The Age of Chaos**_

The train to Luxerion took ten minutes to arrive at the Wildlands and another forty to reach the city; by that time, the sun was sinking below the horizon, and Lightning stepped off into the station alone. Caius had vanished once they were within sight of the Wildlands station, telling her he would meet her in the city. He hadn't given her a chance to respond, but she suspected that the last thing he wanted to do was spend time in a train surrounded by people, metal, and glass. A man like him needed to be surrounded by open sky, not closed up in a box.

Or, that was what she had gathered from his increasing reluctance as they had approached and how quickly he had stolen away once he had come close enough for his liking.

She moved aside to allow other travelers to get past her and turned an ear to the announcer, rattling off the arrivals and departures for the next four hours and thanking the "attentive and hardworking" staff for their "continued dedication to the rhythm of the divine city".

An amused smile flitted across her lips as she listened.

As she strode out into the plaza, she glanced at the clock perched on an ornate post to her right. It told her the time was six-fifteen – late enough for the shadows to become long and dark. The number of people making their rounds had begun to dwindle, leaving a few clerics and passerby who seemed eager to get away from the deepening gloom. Eventually, she knew, the lights around the city would begin to dim until only a surreal glow was left to light the paths of those who still worked in the wee hours.

Lightning sensed her unusual companion's presence moments before she saw him appear from a wisp of darkness to her right and fall in step as though he had been there all along. He said nothing by way of greeting, only giving her a look and _maybe_ a tiny nod, and she hesitated, looking him over.

Caius was a tall man, at least as tall as Snow, and his armor bore nicks and scratches from untold centuries of wear and tear. Even in the dusk light, his hair – the texture sleek but slightly coarse, she could see – shone dully, telling her that either his body was indeed real, or a brilliant imitation of it. The energy radiating from him almost made her wince – he was _powerful_, the chaos giving him as much power as it had in Valhalla and far more now that he was part of it, and the only thing restraining it were the girls forced to remain in the temple.

She wondered what could have possessed them to allow him to go with her. Then again, perhaps he hadn't been waiting here the whole time, but gone back to the temple to wait for her arrival in Luxerion. Maybe it was enough that he returned to visit them every so often. Besides, after that, they would have him forever.

"What is next to do?" he said, cleanly cutting into her thoughts.

She blinked, pulling herself back together. "I must confront the Heretics in the graveyard, and face Noel and find out why he wants to kill me." She didn't miss Caius's faint curiosity, but didn't bother to elaborate. "Tonight, the chaos will come again. It comes every night. We must stop those beasts before they cause too much havoc." Sighing, she tilted her head and met his eyes. "And by 'us', I mostly mean 'you'."

"Of course." His dark eyes never wavered.

Lightning shivered under that intense gaze, fighting back the bad memories that threatened to overwhelm her. The only way they could make this a successful "partnership" was if they could both ignore their pasts long enough to finish out the days. At the end, Caius Ballad and his darkness would descend into the chaos, and she would never gaze upon his hateful visage again.

A ghostly flicker of emotion passed through her and twisted in her gut at how she had to strain a bit to use those words. Only his eyes and the ancient memories clinging to her bones made them flow once she battled past the doubts creeping into her mind. She didn't have the ability to hate, she realized. She remembered how it felt, but it was impossible to be consumed as she used to be. Rather, when she looked at him, she remembered how bitter his voice had been and how he had seemed so–

_Stop that_, she demanded of herself, brusquely turning away, hearing him step closer. This man was responsible for the state of the world and the suffering of everyone in it. No matter how sincere he seemed to be in his burdens, she could never forget what he had done.

It could be her undoing.

"A friend of mine has a son, who has been lost to the chaos. According to Lumina, his soul isn't in his body." Her voice was completely emotionless, as though she were giving the time of day. "He's in a deep sleep. I want to know if the Order knows anything about what happened to him."

Caius was silent a moment. "What makes you believe they would know anything?"

It took a moment to realize he was actually asking the question and looking for an honest answer. "Because they follow Bhunivelze, my master, who is creating the new world we will go to live on," she said. "It's said Bhunivelze can see neither souls nor chaos, but the Order have made some studies into the nature of both. I think if anyone can tell me anything about what's going on with that boy, it'll be someone with them."

"Why do you follow Bhunivelze?"

"Because he has my sister," she answered simply. "He promised to restore her to life if I will become his Liberator and lead all of the people here out of their cages of darkness into the glorious light."

He grunted softly. "She is a chess piece, then, in his game."

"His promise was clear, and I hold him to it."

"By now, we should know that these 'gods' cannot be trusted."

"He can restore my sister to life, and I will be able to lead all of these suffering people to a new world. Is that not worth bending once again to the might of something far more powerful than I?" During their small conversation, they had walked about a block, and now she stopped and looked carefully at him. "Serah is precious to me. She is everything to me and the only person I will ever love. She deserves to go, and I can't just let her vanish."

For a moment, his eyes seemed to soften. "I believe you."

Unsettled by the change in demeanor, but not sure why, she moved away again. The cathedral's spires rose into the darkening heavens; she directed her feet toward them, ignoring the stares from the passerby, knowing they were curious not only about her, who bore the same color hair as the victims of the Heretics, but also no doubt curious about the heavily burdened and tall dark warrior in step behind her.

_Behind her_. Lightning sighed and stopped dead; Caius stopped about two feet behind her and to her right.

"Take point," she said, and gestured ahead.

Caius said nothing and did as he was told; this time, Lightning could not ignore the way his shoulders seemed to lose some of their stoutness, though his spine remained straight as her broken sword. It puzzled her, and the truth of his behavior seemed on the tip of her tongue, but would not come any further than that.

"Where to?" His voice was completely emotionless.

Lightning briefly wondered if him walking in front of her really made that much sense. She had already come to the conclusion that he wasn't really a threat – at least, not right now – and he couldn't exactly read her mind. Besides, if he'd wanted to do something to her, wouldn't he have done so already? The logic filled her mind, layering upon itself until she had no more ability to doubt beyond her own stubbornness.

"Well…" Bracing against the instincts battling her feet, screaming at her to stay _far_ away, she moved up beside him and caught a flicker of surprise on his face. "The cathedral is the center of everything. If anyone in the Order knows what to do about the boy, they'll either be there, or I can be pointed to them."

"I see," he said. He fell in step a foot or two behind her, close enough that she would be able to sense if he made any sudden moves, but not close enough to invade her space.

"So, what made you do this?"

There was a pause. "What made me do what?"

"Help me." Lightning glanced over her shoulder at him. "You don't hit me as the type who would do something like this. Wouldn't you prefer to stay with Yeul?"

She heard him snort softly. "Remain in those empty halls, existing without a purpose? Hardly."

"That doesn't answer my question."

"You are a charge, as Yeul was, and I also have the opportunity to ease her burden by assisting you. As far as I am concerned, accompanying you is not much different from protecting her." He hesitated, then said, "Except that you are far more capable of protecting yourself from this world's dangers than she."

She hummed softly, neither agreeing nor disagreeing. "So, you've got an ulterior motive: easing Yeul's burden."

"And perhaps extending the world's life by doing so."

She knew that, even as she gathered energy to breathe more life into Yggdrasil, anything helped. "If her chaos doesn't chip away at the world if you're out here helping, fine with me."

They made their way into a shadowy passage surrounded by concrete walls, though gaps in the stone provided glimpses of the sea beyond. She had yet to see the edge of the world with her own eyes, having not gotten close enough to the edge of any continent yet, but she had heard stories of an endless sea of chaos pouring into a clouded abyss, which was all that remained of the globe that had once been Gran Pulse tracking endlessly around its sun through the infinite cosmos. Would the universe die with Gran Pulse? Would the millions of stars in the sky also be devoured by the chaos when it all came to an end?

She thought of the possibility that other worlds circled those stars, that other civilizations lived and breathed out there somewhere, and that if the universe died, they too would suffer because of Caius's sins. Because she couldn't reach them, she couldn't save any of them. They would become inhabitants of the land of chaos that would come into being once Gran Pulse finally died.

How many times had this cycle occurred? Valhalla had been a city once. Had it too once been a world devoured by chaos, closely followed by a "new" one?

A twinge of bitterness passed through her, familiar on her tongue. No, she could never forget what Caius had done, for it truly _could_ be her undoing. Uneasily looking over her shoulder at him again, she saw him looking thoughtful, but nonetheless focused. Caius had always been easy to read, at least for her – angry, bitter, hateful, spiteful, or in a fit of rage after she found him collapsed on his knees and crying, only to lash out at her hard enough that she often wondered if she would survive the onslaught. To find him impossible to read, then, was nerve-wracking. There was no betrayal of thought or emotion in his stony expression, purposeful gait, and impossibly deep and dark eyes that she felt she would lose herself in if she stared for too long. No part of her wanted to find out where they led. All she could rely on was what came out of his mouth and the actions he took from here on.

And that was the most unnerving truth of all.

Beyond what remained of a wharf, rust-eaten and covered in barnacles and moss, was a small courtyard bathed in dusky shadows, ringed with blooming shrubbery. Fireflies winked in the air above the leaves. A lamppost wrought in a silvered metal spilled light across the courtyard. Two great gates of ornate iron stood between her and the grand cathedral beyond. A sentry stood at the edge of the lamp's light, a glimmer in the area of his head being the only way she could tell he was watching the two of them.

Lightning kept her gaze fixed ahead and passed through an archway into a smaller courtyard, more lengthwise in shape than the other. A fountain tinkled in the center, and around the intricately carved stone grew a ring of purple flowers. Golden centers glowed faintly.

"They sealed the gates," she muttered, groaning. While she'd heard that the gates were only open for a certain amount of time each day, she hadn't thought they would close this early. "Well, so much for getting in today," she added in more of a grumble than before.

Caius was gazing at the top of the wall. "There are always ways, Liberator."

Lightning caught the suggestive undertone in his voice. "Oh, no you don't," she said, sternly enough to bring his eyes back to her. "You and I are plenty powerful enough to break down this wall, sure, but I don't feel like causing a commotion. As for climbing over it, that's out of the question, too."

He tilted his head, the reflection of light on his hair shifting with the movement. "Not intending to disturb the peace this time around, are we?"

She opened her mouth to ask what he meant before thinking of the thirteen days of the Purge and how she and the others had roused so much chaos. No doubt that was what he was referring to. "No," she said. "It's not worth it. We can find another way." As she spoke, she glanced around at the impenetrable walls. The iron gates were the only immediately visible entrance, but off in the corner, behind a pair of flowering shrubs– "There," she said, nodding toward it. "That seems to be a service entrance of some kind."

She walked up to it and tried the handle, but it was locked tight, and the door was made of metal too stout to try and force open. A card reader blinked on the wall to the right.

She stepped back, lowering her hand from the handle. "If we can get a badge, this could be the way in for us."

"Is that so?" Caius sounded stiff. "You expect me to accompany you?"

Feeling irritation burn inside her, she faced him and placed both hands on her hips. "I do. The Order might even like you for awakening their deity, so it's not as if you'd be unwelcome. Besides, if I run into trouble, I need someone to watch my back. You know the deal we made."

"I doubt a chaos beast is going to erupt in the middle of their 'cathedral of holy light'."

"The brightest light casts the darkest shadow."

Caius's eyes seemed to darken further as he dipped his chin. "I shall wait until your return."

Lightning frowned slightly. "You mean you'll go back to Yeul until I'm done in the cathedral."

There was a long pause. "It _is_ where I belong."

"If that's where you _belong_, then why not just stay there?" Her voice, having begun to warm toward normal, turned back into ice.

"I have explained the reasons to you already," was his equally cold response. "If you are unable to understand after the rationalization I have already provided, then another certainly will not satisfy you."

She bristled. "I told you not to patronize me. Just because–"

Something moved in the corner of her eye; in a flash, she had her hand on her sword and faced it. Caius, too, had shifted into a ready stance. It took a moment for her eyes to adjust, but once they did, she realized there was a small human shape standing in the shadows, dimly lit by the city lights. It was a young woman in the gray-and-black outfit of a cleric, hands folded, brown eyes wide, mouth pinched closed.

Lightning stared at her for a minute. Then, slowly, she released the sword and relaxed her shoulders and hips. "Can I help you?" she said gently.

The woman's eyes darted between her and Caius, mouth opening and closing. "Ah, eh, well, I just– I heard raised voices and wanted to know what was… if anything was wrong." The words tumbled out as though they fell on top of one another in their rush to escape, and she stopped rather suddenly.

"No, nothing is wrong," Lightning said, soothingly. "He and I were merely having a… disagreement."

"Oh." The woman looked less anxious now. "Forgive my intrusion, then."

Lightning exchanged a look with Caius, who looked uncomfortable, but at least he was still around. "Actually, you might be able to help us," she said, looking back at the other woman. "We're trying to get into the cathedral to speak to your superiors there. We need assistance with a matter regarding a soul." When her eyes widened slightly, she breathed deep and continued. "The gates are closed, but there's that service entrance. Can you help us– me?" she said quickly, remembering what Caius had said.

"The service entrance?" She sounded thoughtful. "It must be important. You are the Liberator, aren't you?"

Lightning blinked. "Yes, I am. Word gets around the Order, I see."

"No other woman has rose-colored hair and carries the crimson blade and shield as you do," she pointed out. "Nor does she bear the blessed armor of Bhunivelze about her." Her voice bore a twinge of awe, reflected in her eyes, that did not leave even when she looked back a Caius. "And who is your companion? The Liberator was never spoken to have a companion but for the star of hope in the sky."

Lightning wondered who on Pulse could've written this fancy prophecy of theirs. "This is Caius," she said. On a hunch, she added, "He is responsible for the awakening of Bhunivelze."

The woman's mouth dropped open again. "He is the Destroyer? The slayer of the evil goddess Etro?"

Caius looked even more uncomfortable when Lightning glanced at him. "Indeed," she said. "Well, primarily. The Shadow Hunter was another part of Etro's end."

"I never thought I would see the Liberator. And to see her _and_ the Destroyer…" A gasp escaped her as she bowed at the waist, deeply, hands clasped to her chest. This lasted a few seconds before she lifted her head again and said, "Forgive my rudeness, I am Aremiah. I am a neophyte in the Order."

"Aremiah," Lightning repeated. "I am Lightning."

"A powerful name for the one chosen to save us from the chaos." Aremiah still sounded in awe when she spoke. Part of Lightning felt the urge to shake sense into her and drag her out of the hero worship, but she let it go, despite how it made her feel inside. She understood Caius's lack of comfort with the situation – neither of them had gotten these "exalted" titles by choice – but it could prove to their advantage, _if_ she played her cards right.

"The service entrance, Aremiah."

"Oh! Yes, of course. I have a key, but…" She trailed off. The expression of awe melted away into worry. "If you are the Liberator, perhaps you can help me. I have been ever so worried since the saint lost a crystal precious to her." Lines appeared near her eyes. "The Lady Vanille has searched for it in vain. I too have been unable to find it."

Something flickered in Lightning's heartless void. "Did you say Vanille?"

Aremiah seemed briefly confused. "Well, yes. The crystal is said to give her the ability to watch over the last of her family, who left her side almost thirteen years ago. She lost her only link to the Lady Fang."

At the sound of another familiar name, Lightning took a step closer. "Did she go out and leave it somewhere?"

Aremiah looked shocked. "The Lady Vanille is not allowed to leave the cathedral, so it is impossible for her to have left it anywhere but inside its walls."

"Really." Lightning looked over her shoulder at the glittering stone façade staring down at her. "So, you keep your precious 'saint' locked up like some sort of animal, is that it?" Ignoring the woman's gasp, she folded her arms as she returned her gaze to the woman's. "So, if she can't get out, then someone would've had to take it from _her_. Who else has access to her?"

"Only the clerics." Aremiah sounded insulted, but Lightning figured she dare not backtalk the Liberator. "If you are insinuating that one of _them_ took it, you are very wrong."

"Then who else could have?" Lightning shook her head. "It could've have gotten far. How long has it been gone?"

"Since this morning." She sighed. "Since the supply shipment left."

"And where do the empty boxes go?"

"To the warehouse district." Aremiah looked stricken. "This is my fault. The stone disappeared under my watch, and I should have kept a closer eye on it. Oh, please, will you find it for me? Only then can I rest. Only when I see it whole and well will I be able to beg the Lady Vanille's forgiveness."

"I doubt that's necessary. If she's anything like I remember, she won't pin a spot of blame on you."

"You… you knew her? Personally? Was that…" Aremiah took a breath. "…before the Age of Chaos?"

"Yes," she said, "long before."

The other woman's eyes slipped out of focus for a moment. "I was born before the chaos came, almost twenty years before, but I can't remember any of it. I think there was a city, and a moon on a pillar of crystal, but it all seems so far away. Like I'm remembering someone else's story from years ago."

"Maybe it's for the best," Lightning said. "The time when the chaos came is hardly something you'd want to recall."

She sighed. "Maybe you're right. After all, you _are_ the Liberator."

Lightning shook her head slightly. "I'll investigate the warehouse district and see if I can find anything. When I get back with that crystal – and I _will_ – I'm fully expecting you to hand over that key." To emphasize the seriousness of her words, she placed both hands on her hips, squared her shoulders, and frowned. It was a frightening expression, she knew, and it seemed to work, if the woman – closer to a girl, if she had only been born a mere twenty years prior to the Age of Chaos – abruptly straightening and looking all business were any indication.

Once Lightning left the courtyard, Caius said, "Vanille, is it?"

She didn't look at him as she said, "Yeah. Who knows why they're keeping her locked up in there, but I'm guessing I'll find out once I'm inside."

They made their way north now, following a route called "Pilgrim's Passage" to a gate barring access to the Warren and cut to the left through a cramped commercial district. The number of glances had increased since the last time she had come through here, she saw. Most people either knew what her role was or were simply curious because of her somewhat unusual appearance, but now she was accompanied by a tall, stern-faced warrior in black armor who exuded a sense of incredible power that even those unable to sense chaos could no doubt feel.

"Caius," she hissed at one point, "don't look so severe."

She never looked to find out if he had done as she asked, but at least the stares and nervous looks seemed to lessen once she'd spoken. She herself made sure to keep her expression relaxed, despite allowing her gaze to dart around as she kept a careful eye out for chaos emissions. Once the sun sank, the chaos began to move underfoot, and at times it ripped through the earth and pierced the sky. When that happened, nightmares followed and people died. Now that she had a powerful weapon at her side, she wasn't about to be as helpless as the previous night.

"When we're done here, I need to return to the Ark for a brief period."

"I will await your return in the temple."

Exasperated, she looked at him now, and he frowned back at her. "Didn't I just–"

"Yeul and I made an agreement," he told her. "Every night, when you returned to the Ark, I would return to _her_ for a period of time. That was her lone condition to allow me to accompany you."

There was a pregnant pause. "You're uncomfortable with this."

He stared at her. "How did you guess?"

A sigh escaped her. He told her what she asked and little else. "Look, if it's _that_ painful for you to remain at my side, then go back," she muttered. "I don't have time for your pettiness. I've got a job to do." Ignoring the stare of someone trying very hard to hide his interest to the left, she laid a hand on her hip and scowled. "If I need you, I'll call for you. Will that work out better?"

His expression didn't change. "You are sending me back to the temple, in spite of our agreement?"

"I didn't mean to keep you as a slave."

He kept standing there. Lightning began to wonder if he'd even heard her. "Our agreement is that I will accompany you. That does not entail allowing me to return anytime I wish, Liberator."

She groaned and turned her back. "You're impossible."

It was then she heard a piercing scream, accompanied by the sound of stone shattering in the distance. Lightning felt her eyes go wide, and she turned in the direction of the sound. Something settled in the pit of her stomach, cold and heavy, as she saw the wisps of darkness dancing in the sky. She was moving toward it, quick as thought, before she knew it, racing toward a pillar of shadow that surged with such energy that she suddenly struggled to breathe.

It was right in the midst of the warehouses.

_Oh, no_. Her sword came off her back and she charged into the emission, shield at the ready, stopping only when she was close to the center. A quick look around told her Caius was not here, but even with the chaos pressing down on her all around, she sensed his unique presence prickling somewhere behind her.

"Right on schedule, as always, being your reckless altruistic self."

Lightning briefly bared her teeth. "Lumina?"

The girl formed out of the shadows, hands clasped behind her back, blue eyes glittering, pink lips smirking. "This is a pretty nasty emission, don't you think? It's bigger than the one last night…" She trailed off and tipped her head, lifting an eyebrow. "Though, of course _you_ can't tell. But they are getting bigger each night."

The smirk got a little bigger.

"Just like those ones cropping up all over Yusnaan."

"What do you want? I've got no time for your games!" Lightning's eyes darted back and forth, and finally she saw Caius, though little more than a shadow in the shape of a man, the brassy checkered patterns of the emission flowing over and around him with the same sense of tenderness she had seen from Yeul's chaos in the temple. Did the girl's reach extend even here? Had even the wild chaos, the natural phenomenon of this planet, come under the rule of her painfully emotional and deeply longing heart?

"Caius is in his element, isn't he? He looks like he belongs here. Oh, wait…" Lumina giggled. "He _does_! Oh, this is just too precious. Caius of the chaos and Lightning of the light. How poetically ironic!"

Lightning felt a spike of power to her left. "What's your–"

"He might want to help a little, but I wouldn't turn my back on him. He _is_ under Yeul's direction, and that girl sure doesn't want to let him go." Lumina bent at the waist. "And besides, he _did_ get what he wanted, right?"

The girl vanished, and in her place appeared a quartet of glowing pink eyes, all glaring directly at her.

Lightning gasped and brought her sword up.

The beast bashed her with one forepaw, sending her skidding across the pavement, and turned away. A pair of onlookers, screaming in terror, suddenly fell to the stone, wisps of darkness leaving their bodies to be devoured by the ghostly pink fangs beneath the eyes. Her head throbbing, vision blurring, she climbed unsteadily to her feet and stumbled forward, twirling her sword to lop off a flailing tentacle.

A flare of pink energy appeared in the darkness, casting hard shadows, and crashed into its head. It squealed and hopped back; Caius, looking a little more familiar now, though still trailing chaos, used his sword to cut cleanly into a forepaw, the limb dropping to the ground and vanishing with a sigh.

The roar of chaos filled her ears; Lightning gasped and chopped off another tentacle, then brought her shield up just as the creature slammed a forelimb into it.

The onlookers panicked and ran in all directions, as far away from the raging beast as they could, as the ghostly fangs snapped at the air and Caius sent another powerful surge of energy into its side. It yelped, but still bore down on her, though she locked her elbows and pushed back with all her might. It was _powerful_, far more than the chaos-infused feral beasts she'd encountered during the day, reeking of chaos, blacking out her surroundings until all she could see were its fangs and eyes, tentacles whipping around and trying to grab hold.

She twisted and swung her sword, severing a pair of tentacles and causing them to vanish in shadowy wisps, but she could not turn back fast enough before it smashed its head into her shield.

She dimly heard Caius's familiar shout through the roar of darkness before a powerful blast sent the beast toppling over on its side, limbs pawing at the air, its "blood" leaving its body in spurts of black that turned to smoke. The roar having lessened, she climbed to her feet, infused her broken sword with a brilliant flare of energy, aimed for a crack glowing pink in its forehead, and slammed her blade into it. Using all her strength, she tore it straight down, cleanly ripping open a hole in its "skull", from which spurted liquid chaos.

The creature screamed, scrabbling wildly for purchase on the stone, and she felt it close its jaws around her blade as she tried to pull back. Seizing it tight, it began to pull; she settled back on her heels, trying to calculate the seconds she had left in her elbows and shoulders before she either found an opening or it ripped her limbs off.

_This isn't good_, she thought distantly.

Moments later, its cries silenced, the pull suddenly gone. It became a fountain in reverse, the shadows rushing back into the cracked earth, and suddenly there was silence again. Caius stood where its torso had been, prying his sword from where it had punched into the stone, looking sidelong at her without expression.

Lightning felt her chest aching and said nothing.

Caius wriggled the sword free and held it up. It vanished in a flicker of pale light. "Are you at all injured?" he said.

She climbed to her feet and blinked at him.

Still emotionless, he turned away to face the bodies left behind by the beast. Lightning took a breath and moved over to them. One look told her all she needed to know: they were utterly lifeless.

Something dark and unpleasant slunk through her blood. "Is this what you meant to happen? People rotting away in the chaos, unable to find any sort of hope, losing their minds, their lives, their dreams, all because you and Yeul just couldn't bear losing each other?" Feeling her face harden, she looked at him. His profile was as unreadable as ever. "Tell me. Was it worth the suffering of millions of innocent people?"

He did not respond, and no expression crossed his features.

She snorted and turned toward the warehouses. "Fine. Forget I asked. Let's get that crystal."

* * *

><p><em>If this feels a bit like filler, in a way it is, but there's some important bits here. I wanted to establish that the "Destroyer" is also a thing with the Order, for example. It seems reasonable, since they adore Bhunivelze and Caius is primarily responsible for his awakening. Also, I'm leading into visiting Vanille, and I plan to put what I hope to be a unique twist on the meeting with her, which I've already begun working on as the next chapter. Thanks for reading, and please continue to provide comments and constructive criticism for me! I appreciate every last one of you taking the time to do that. :)<em>


	8. Sealed in Darkness

_**7 Sealed in Darkness**_

Inside the cathedral of light, the shadows had fallen thickly across the beautifully polished stone and the angelic statues staring down from two corners. Images of death and rebirth, heavily stylized, gazed blankly at the checkered floor and bore into her with unseeing stone eyes. The clerics had long left for their evening rituals and rest, but the lone woman in the center of the huge ceremonial hall could not rest. Her bare feet made no sound on the cool stone, the raw silk tresses falling about her slender form whispering faintly as she moved. She was the brightest spot of color at the moment, all sunset hues and warm jewel tones, pacing endlessly across the colorless hall with her hands constantly roving over each other.

When she stopped, it was only because she had paced for what felt like hours, and her feet were cold and sore from all of the walking. She pressed her palms to her stomach, a half-whimper escaping her, gray-green eyes darting all around at her sterile surroundings. This was nothing like her home's fields of color and flowers, and whatever hope she had held within herself had been stolen away long ago by these walls.

She sighed, absently tugging at the ornate veil that surrounded her head and covered her brilliant red hair. Long hours greeting people of all kinds who came to be blessed by her had left her tired, and the constant pressure of the chained-up chaos behind her made her body ache for bed, but she could not rest.

If she rested, the dreams would come.

Oerba Dia Vanille swallowed and felt herself tense at the memory of the dreams. Once upon a time, she'd had Fang to comfort her when the nightmares came and she cried for the parents and family they had lost, but Fang was not here to protect her anymore. Ever since the days of leaving Oerba, she'd had to hold herself up mostly on her own. And now, she was here, basking in bitter memories of lost hopes.

Vanille whirled on one of the great statues in an uncharacteristic show of bitterness, glaring up at it, wishing she could break it apart by sheer force of will.

The clerics told her this was a place of safety, of peace, but it stank of death and chaos. There was no rest for her here, not even when she had clutched her crystal with her and wept bitter tears. Maybe everyone who came through here could not feel the chaos as she could, and maybe even the clerics did not know how hard it pushed down on her and threatened to crush her under its powerful and oppressive weight. If she didn't keep her mind under control, into its wild winds her thoughts would be swept, and her nightmares would worsen.

She turned to see the cathedral guards standing in each corner, impassive, unmoving. They never moved except if they felt her in danger. They were unobtrusive, and most days she could ignore them, but in the silence that always fell at night, their presence reminded her of the Order's gilded cage.

And she could not just send them away. Though most everyone here did as she asked without question, the guards were the exception. Their lone duty was to protect her.

Vanille never had any privacy here. Only her bedchamber and private bath had no eyes to watch her, but there were guards outside the door and beneath every window. She was pampered beyond belief, worshipped by the people in the city, guarded as though she were the most precious jewel, waited on hand and foot, and all of it was far more humiliating than being thrown out naked in the streets to scrounge on garbage and compete with the dogs for any scrap of kindness a passing stranger _might_ hand out.

She often wished she _had_ just been thrown out. At least then she could go to the Warren and vanish, be alone with her thoughts and guilt, and never stand out. Being so revered for something she didn't ask for and a fate that made her bones turn to ice when she thought of it, despite knowing she deserved it, only made her feel more caged than she already did, but she never complained, because it was a just punishment.

She longed to be free, to feel the grass between her toes and smell blooming flowers on the air, but that was a desire that would be, now and forever, denied to her.  
>Again she paced, but she was growing bored, and her body groggily begged for sleep. At the thought of lying down in that bed of flaxen silk and pure-white cotton, letting her head rest on a pillow soft as a cloud, she froze up, fearing what the night would bring. No amount of comfort from the clerics could drive away the fear.<p>

She hadn't found her friends and had lost her only family.

And the one person she longed to see had disappeared from this world long ago, never to be found.

At the memory, she felt tears tingle behind her eyes, but blinked them away and drew a breath. It was time to let go of the past and let rest a future she would never see. This had to be done.

Her bones pleaded for rest; she turned toward the silvered door with its ornate carvings of a large tree spreading its blooming branches across the sky, its roots sunk deep into the earth. The crest of Bhunivelze was positioned atop the tree. A great crowd of people prostrated themselves at the tree's base.

Vanille cringed back. It led to her private chambers, but it stank of death, and the images made her skin crawl and a sinking feeling creep through the pit of her stomach.

As she started toward it, a commotion from behind stopped her, and she craned her neck, peering across the pews at the great double doors at the far end. They were sealed for the night, but a service door cut into one of them gave those with a keycard in their hands access to the sanctum after hours. The only person she could think immediately who would need to venture in would be Aremiah and felt her breath snag. Had she found the crystal?

The four guards bordering the vaulted doors crowded in on a slender figure dressed in flowing white robes. It was too far away to see, but all the same, it made her sigh. Another cleric, it seemed, here to prattle on with boring lectures about the unworthiness of those touched by chaos to exist in the new world and how precious she was above all other beings, how _she_ was special and _she_ would save everyone from their sorrows.

She could recite all that from memory. It was important, but she'd been told it hundreds of times over the past years that she had begun to shut it out from boredom and fear.

The guards abruptly parted, though reluctantly returning to their posts, and the figure in white walked toward her. She frowned – something about that purposeful gait was distinctly _not_ clerical. Rather, it had the stride of a warrior, the grace of someone well used to handling a sword, faintly marred by the slight stiffness that accompanied those who had been fighting for a long, long time.

Recognition struck her like a bolt of electricity, but she still held her tongue, at least until the cathedral's faint glow reflected on hair the color of a young rose and she could see the individual– the _woman _ clearly.

"Lightning? Is that you?" she breathed.

When she was only a short distance away, the woman smiled, faintly. It didn't look entirely real, as though she were merely putting it on as one puts on a piece of clothing, but for the moment, Vanille didn't care. Silk billowing out behind her from the speed of her step, she came forward to meet Lightning and clasped a hand in both of hers. It was gloved, snug inside a strong but butter-soft leather, and definitely belonged to her.

"I can't believe it!" Even having been one of those _knowing_ Lightning had merely been lost to the chaos and taken to another realm, she still couldn't believe her friend was standing there.

"Vanille, it's good to see you." Lightning spoke somewhat stiffly, with a sense of formality; Vanille felt no response from the woman's hand and released it, unease filtering through her blood. "You look just I remember you, all those years ago. Though…" Her brow furrowed. "…your eyes are gray now."

Vanille self-consciously touched her fingertips to the skin just beneath her left eye. "Seems that way."

Lightning looked her up and down. Her eyes were the same pure blue, but they seemed… empty, as though her life had been partially sucked out of her. Was it a side effect of spending so much time fighting in Valhalla? An effect of having to witness her sister's death, the world end, and sleep in crystal for so long? It shouldn't be a surprise to see that some of the woman's fierce, proud spirit had been chipped away, and yet… it didn't seem right.

Vanille felt a bit as though she were gazing at a doll.

"How did you find me?" she asked, but didn't get any further before she felt Lightning press something hard and cool into her hands. She looked down to see the familiar rainbow hues of the crystal shard there now and closed her fingers around it. The nightmares would still come, but she had some comfort now. Where Fang once watched over her, now she watched over Fang in that dangerous desert.

"I am the Liberator now," Lightning said, without inflection. "I heard you were here and came to see if, maybe, I could find a way to free you from the chaos."

Vanille frowned slightly. "You save people from the chaos, right? Of course you'd want to save a comrade, too."

"Ever since I woke up, I'd been hoping I'd find everyone."

"Well, you found me. That's better than I did when I first woke up." She turned away, mostly to hide her expression as it crumbled slightly, and clutched the crystal tighter. "I searched everywhere, but once the Order got wind that I could hear people trapped in the chaos, I haven't been able to leave." Ignoring Lightning's soft gasp, she shook her head. "Sazh is off in the wilds with his son, and Fang's in the Dead Dunes. Snow is in Yusnaan, locked up inside his palace. And Hope…" Something stung her heart; she battled it back and went on. "Hope hasn't been seen for almost two centuries. No one knows where he is."

There was a pause before Lightning said, "I can assure you Sazh and Dajh are safe. Snow is also safe, for now. And Hope is very much alive. He's inside the Ark, helping me."

Vanille half-turned, feeling her eyes widen. "Then that phantom _didn't_ get him."

Lightning's brow knit. "I keep hearing of this 'phantom', or 'imposter', someone responsible for dragging Hope away from the people. Apparently, she looked like me. What's that about? And what is this about you being able to hear those who have been trapped inside the chaos?"

"She was…" Vanille hesitated. How could she explain something that not even the bright minds of Academia had been able to decipher? "…some sort of being that looked like you, and she drove the scientists to madness from their curiosity. Then, one day, from what I heard, Hope just up and left, on her trail, never to be seen again." She felt a twinge, an ache, in her heart, echoing her shock when she had heard the story herself, years ago. Hope had never seemed like the type to just leave, let alone fall into madness, and yet, something had plucked him from normality and sent him toppling over some invisible line between darkness and light.

"It looked like… me?" Lightning looked confused. "How is that–" Then she shook her head. "No, I'll ask Hope about it later. Please continue."

"And as for the chaos, well…" Vanille reached into a pocket inside her waist to tuck the crystal into it. Its weight felt reassuring. "It may be better just to show you. You see, there is a massive emission of chaos over here– no, it's fine!" she added quickly when Lightning's eyes widened and her body seemed to stiffen. "It's been there, building up, for centuries already. If it hasn't gone anywhere yet, it probably won't ever, not until the end of the world." She tilted her head. "Would you like to see?"

The warrior's eyes fixed on hers. "You're cooped up in here with a _chaos emission_?"

"Yes." Vanille winced and placed a hand on her breastbone. "It makes it hard to sleep. The pressure of it upon me is enormous. I can feel it all the time, and I can feel when chaos emissions erupt elsewhere in the city, though they are far more faint than this one is. But I must be here. It is my duty."

"They keep you locked up like a prisoner."

"I am a prisoner," she said, and smiled sadly, "but you will understand."

Vanille moved toward a door on the right that led the labyrinthine corridors, at the end of which was the atrium in which the final rites to quiet those trapped in the mass would be performed. With a small bit of effort, she swung the heavy brass doors wide and descended the steps. Lightning came right behind her. Neither spoke for a time, until the door swung back on its own, closing with a _snick_.

She heard Lightning pause, briefly, on her way down the steps. "You've been alone since Fang left?"

Vanille grasped the front of her skirts so she wouldn't step on them. Though they made her feel even more like a well-kept prisoner, they were luxurious and beautiful, and tearing them would be an insult to the craftsmanship that had gone into creating them. Besides, the porous stone felt good against her feet, a pleasant change from the sanded, checkered marble of the sanctum above them.

"Actually, no. Lumina keeps me company, though she comes and goes." She sighed. "You must know Lumina by now; everyone in Luxerion does. She's a prankster and a bit obnoxious, but even she gets lonely, and so she comes here and keeps me company." A cool breeze smelling of chaos met her nostrils. They were close now. "She's just a child, and children need time with others, just like any adult would."

Lightning said nothing until they had reached the sanctum. Though lamps glowing blue had been arranged around the raised central dais, their glow turned surreal and fog-like as the whispering chaos circled the room. Four statues of stylized angelic beings held out staffs and gazed at the ceiling with peaceful faces. Vanille ignored all of it and climbed to the top of the dais, finally releasing her skirts.

"This is all chaos?" Lightning sounded nervous and yet in awe when she spoke; Vanille looked at her to see her standing with her head tipped back, the blue glow making her look like she'd stepped out of a watercolor painting as the chaos slightly distorted her outline. "It's…" Grunting softly, she laid a hand on her chest, atop a silver emblem in the shape of Bhunivelze's "everlasting crystal" crest – befitting his chosen Liberator, of course. "It's painful. How do you cope with it, every day and night?"

Vanille raised her hands. The chaos flowed around her fingers like the waters of a river. "Because at the end of the world, I will be here to free these people." She took a deep breath and began to paraphrase that which the clerics had told her so often. "These are tainted individuals swallowed by chaos emissions or chaos beasts, their lives torn from their bodies, unable to live or die, instead existing in a state of perpetual agony."

"Up until the world ends, of course." A third voice joined them, and Lumina materialized, flashing Vanille a quick smile as she came closer. "Look at all these people, Lightning. Look at them, and feel them. Can you feel the weight of their burdens, crushing you until you can't breathe?"

Lightning visibly winced and again clutched at the emblem. "Good thing they want to stay here, because this emission is incredibly dense. If it ever got out, I wouldn't be surprised if it just flat destroyed the world from how much bound-up energy there is in here."

"Then you understand why I must do this?" _You see why I have to die_, she wanted to say, but refrained from letting the words go free. Lightning would only try to stop her, and it would devolve into endless drama that was not even close to being necessary this near to the world's end. She would find out when it happened, when her lifeless body struck the floor and there was nothing anyone could do for her anymore. "After all that I have done, I can't just let them rot away into nothing. You feel how terrible it is."

Lightning looked at her. "How long has this been building up, exactly?"

"Since…" Vanille frowned, one hand toying with her skirt. "Since the start of the Age of Chaos, if I'm remembering correctly. It's fit to burst, if that's what you're getting at."

"And you're right," Lumina chimed in. "If it ever got out, then yeah, it would not only be the end of these people, but everyone else in the world, too. That much chaos just isn't good for you. Might make you sick." She flashed a grin and giggled. "Or, alternatively, dead."

Lightning faced the way they had come, robes fluttering around her legs. "I've seen enough."

Vanille, finding it difficult to focus with all the noise in her head, silently agreed. Together, they left the blue-lit sanctum and returned to the main hall. Lumina had vanished, as quickly as she had appeared, leaving herself and Lightning, and of course all of the guards, standing near the central altar. Vanille stared at it, not really seeing, while the other woman seemed thoughtful, standing off to the side.

"I need to rest." Her hand brushed the crystal shard hanging inside her pocket. "Though, I admit I'm afraid of what might come in my sleep. Dreams, you see. And not good ones, either."

"I get that." The warrior shifted her weight. "I thought you weren't going to come inside, Caius."

Surprised to hear that particular name, Vanille turned and squinted in the direction Lightning was looking. The gloom shaped by the lights formed a shadow that fell over several rows of pews. A tall, broad-shouldered man sat in one of them, an arm stretched across the polished wood behind him, and gazed at her. Vanille gradually became aware of a weight of chaos, coming from his direction, that drove itself hard into her chest.

"Oppressive, isn't he?" Lightning said, looking at her. Her voice was low, as if she didn't want him to hear.

Vanille took a breath and said nothing.

Caius rose from his seat in the pew and stepped toward them. An instant later, he stood in front of the pews, wisps of chaos trailing from his armor, his violet eyes meeting hers without wavering. Vanille looked him over, taking in the strength of his form, the power radiating from every inch of his body, the unreadable but fierce emotion flickering deep in his eyes, and felt suddenly nervous under his gaze. Something about it disturbed her, but she couldn't figure out why, and the weight of the chaos made it hard to think.

"You're Caius Ballad, then," she said, and from the way his gaze hardened, she guessed he fully expected her to let her words of blame loose. Instead, she said, "You bear a heavy burden. It _hurts_." Her hands clasped at her chest, pulse quickening. "You feel like those who are trapped in the chaos."

She ignored Lightning's stare in favor of Caius's flicker of emotion. "You are here, and that chaos is there, because of what I did long ago. This is my fault." He spoke with a strong, smooth voice, completely void of any real emotion except an undertone of pain that she recognized all too well.

_It certainly is_, some part of her wanted to agree, but she held the words back. He deserved the blame, for his sins had been grave indeed, but she just felt tired, too tired to assign him blame. Besides, the pain in his voice reminded her of her own once she had been found out, begging Sazh to shoot her, to make her free from the horrors she had allowed to propagate because she wanted to _run_ instead of face and fix them. She had no energy to point fingers, and some small part of her told her there was no need to remind him of his misdeeds.

"What's done is done," she murmured. "Soon, the end will come, and all our wrongs will be made right."

Caius said nothing, but she saw his expression harden.

Her bones pleaded for rest; she rubbed her arms, letting the silken fabric soothe her. "It's well past the time when I normally retire," she said, and smiled faintly. "If you'll excuse me, I must go. Thank you for the visit, Lightning." She met the woman's gaze. "Say hi to Hope for me, please?"

The woman returned her smile. "I will, I promise."

Vanille nodded and turned away.

"Oh, one more thing, Vanille, if you wouldn't mind?"

Vanille stopped and looked back at Lightning. Caius stood slightly behind her, not moving. "Sure."

Lightning took a breath. "Dajh is asleep, and his body appears to be empty. Sazh was told, by Lumina, that his soul actually isn't _in_ his body anymore. Have you heard of such a thing?"

She frowned slightly. "It's theoretically possible, but I don't know that it's likely. When did he fall asleep?"

"When the chaos came sweeping in long ago."

A hand clamped around the silken folds of her gown before she noticed it. "There's a good chance something may have come and broken the bonds, sure," she said, slowly, choosing her words. "But… you said he's empty?" She looked carefully at her friend. "Lightning, next time you go, look carefully. Reach out. Make absolutely sure of what you sense, because maybe…" The words died on her tongue, but Lightning's eyes narrowed slightly. She had heard the unspoken words, and the warning wavering beneath them.

Giving them each nods of respect as a goodbye, she turned away, retreating behind the silvered door. She followed the halls to her bathing chamber and scrubbed the grime of chaos off her skin before slipping into fresh clothes and climbing into her bed, though she opened her window slightly to let the cooler air in.

Before she closed her eyes, she clutched the crystal close, bending her chin over it, and then set it on the nightstand, where she could reach for it easily if she needed.

She had seen Lightning with her own eyes. Now she knew Snow was safe and Sazh and his son were safe.

How was it, then, that Caius, who had been slain by Noel, still lived?

Realizing she'd forgotten to ask that important question, she stowed it away for later and fell into a fitful sleep.

* * *

><p><em>Thank you so much for all the feedback from the last few chapters! It's helped kickstart my creative juices again - I have four forthcoming chapters already fully written up, so there's guaranteed updates every 1-2 weeks at least until they're published.<em>

_A few quick notes about this chapter: I changed Vanille's clothing because I didn't like her wearing the same outfit when she'd changed cultures as well as eras. There's also a few minor details about the cathedral that I added or edited as well. Also, yes, Sazh's equivalent of the game's "quest" is going to be longer and more involved, so the situation with him and Dajh will continue to develop, and we'll see more of Sazh as the story goes on (I love Sazh, as he's one of my favorite Final Fantasy characters, so I wanted him to have more screentime!)._

_Anyway, I hope all of you enjoyed reading this chapter. I loved writing it. It's interesting writing from Vanille's perspective. :)_


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